Sources: Trump family representatives have held talks to take a financial stake in Binance US, and Changpeng Zhao has been pushing for Trump to pardon him
Discussions for stake in Binance's U.S. arm come as founder Changpeng Zhao has pushed for the administration to pardon him for his own 2023 guilty plea
Wall Street Journal
Context & Ripple Effects
This report put a proposed Trump-family financial link to Binance.US alongside Zhao's separate clemency campaign. Later coverage described Zhao's broader effort to obtain a pardon and ultimately reported that Trump pardoned him, making the earlier overlap between business discussions and clemency unusually consequential.
The subsequent arc also tied Binance's support for the Trump family's World Liberty Financial to the period before the pardon in reporting on Binance's role in USD1 adoption and technology. That does not establish that the stake talks produced a deal, but it makes the governance and conflict questions raised by the talks more durable.
First-order effects
Binance.US, Zhao, and Trump-family representatives face immediate scrutiny over whether a potential ownership relationship could overlap with Zhao's request for presidential clemency.
Any progress on a Binance.US stake would introduce a politically connected prospective investor into the U.S. arm of a platform whose founder was seeking relief from the administration.
Second-order effects
The reported overlap raises the compliance and reputational burden for Binance.US: counterparties and users would have to assess political-access risk alongside the exchange's operating strategy.
Later reporting that Zhao's pardon enabled him to refocus on the U.S. market makes the ownership discussions more relevant to how Binance.US could pursue a renewed competitive position.
Third-order effects
If commercial relationships with politically connected financial ventures repeatedly coincide with regulatory or clemency outcomes, crypto-market access may increasingly depend on political-risk management as well as product and compliance execution.
The pattern would intensify calls to distinguish legitimate industry participation from arrangements that create perceived conflicts between private financial interests and executive power.
The trend: Crypto firms are increasingly treating U.S. political relationships as a strategic variable in market access, reputation, and regulatory risk.
Donald Trump's family is in talks with a crypto company founded by man currently seeking a pardon from Trump's administration for his money laundering conviction. www.wsj.com/finance/curr...
This is as corrupt as it gets folks. Trump commiserating with dark money launderers. Trump Family Has Held Deal Talks With #Binance Following #Crypto Exchange's Guilty Plea. WSJ #Resist #Corruption www.wsj.com/finance/curr...
We're approaching South American levels of overt, arrogant corruption here, folks. — They're saying, “What are you gonna do about it?” — Read more about Binance here: www.reuters.com/investigates... [embedded post]
4. Sorry to disappoint. The WSJ article got the facts wrong. More than 20 people have told me they were asked by the WSJ (and another media), “Can you confirm that CZ made some deal for a pardon?” They probably asked hundreds of people to have 20 people reach out to me. In
“But pursuing a business deal involving a felon seeking a pardon from his administration would be an unprecedented overlap of his business and the government.” Sometimes neutral understatement works just fine.
Crypto industry in November 2024: Yay! No Operation Chokepoint! Crypto industry in March 2025: Must sell 20% stake to Trump family in order to be the government's favored exchange.
Trump's family may take a stake in Binance CZ (founder) plead guilty to violating anti-money-laundering laws ($4.3B fine), and went to jail. Binance aided Hamas and Islamic State transactions. Article hints that a Trump family stake might hinge on pardoning CZ. F'd up stuff. [ima…
Donald Trump giving the founder of Binance a pardon while his family takes a financial stake in the company would be orders of magnitude worse than the Hunter Biden business affairs the right spent years trying to weaponize.
Anyone who ever said “Biden crime family” should be slapped across the face. Like wtf, come on Senators, do we remember this little thing called the Hatch Act? A private company the president has stake in is negotiating with another private company for his families profit,
Representatives of Trump's family have held talks to take a financial stake in the U.S. arm of crypto exchange Binance, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would put Trump in business with the firm that pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating
Despite all the short term pain I think Trump administration is long term good for crypto & all of its policies This likely means Binance will be coming back to America to soon