Changpeng Zhao is accused by the Wall Street Journal of acting behind the scenes to promote World Liberty Financial, a crypto project supported by Donald Trump. Binance and WLFI founders emphatically deny these allegations.
“Risible”: World Liberty Fires Back
On X, World Liberty Financial co-founder, Zak Folkman, fires back with a scathing response. The idea that CZ acted as a facilitator for Witkoff or WLFI is not only false but laughable,” he wrote, referring to his partner Zach Witkoff. The message is clear: no international lobbying operation was conducted by CZ on behalf of their platform.
The Wall Street Journal article mentioned supposed links between CZ and several international initiatives of the World Liberty project, including in Pakistan, Abu Dhabi, and Kyrgyzstan. But never clearly supported Zhao’s exact role in these efforts.
CZ Strikes Back: “A Smear Campaign”
CZ breaks his silence and heavily accuses. In a series of posts, he denounces a set-up orchestrated by an American venture capital fund that invested in a rival exchange. According to him, millions of dollars were poured into an “aggressive lobbying operation” to prevent Binance from helping the US become the global capital of crypto.
“I’m not a fixer for anyone,” he asserts before adding, “I heard they were paid to smear.” Zhao suggests that the real motivations behind this attack are purely economic: the fear of a foreign giant ready to dominate the US market.
An Explosive Context: Presidential Pardon, Stablecoin, and Mega-Deal
This escalation comes in an already tense climate. In March, leaks suggested a presidential pardon request from CZ to Donald Trump, a confirmed piece of information. Let’s recall that CZ served a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2023 for compliance failures in Binance’s anti-money laundering system. The exchange, on the other hand, paid a record $4.3 billion fine.
Meanwhile, World Liberty continues to move forward. The platform, which describes Trump as its “chief crypto ambassador,” has just launched its own stablecoin, USD1. Abu Dhabi is interested: investor MGX has reportedly chosen this currency to seal a $2 billion deal…with Binance.
