- Binance seeks a U.S. comeback by strengthening ties with the Trump family.
- It plans a partnership with Trump-linked WLFI and listing its USD1 stablecoin.
- Binance pushes for Zhao’s pardon as Trump allies eye a stake in Binance.US.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is set on returning to the United States and using the new connections it has forged with the Trump family.
According to reports, executives at the crypto exchange Binance visited U.S. Treasury officials last month to seek the removal or lessening of a federal monitorship over the exchange’s compliance with anti-money laundering rules. Binance was put under this monitorship after pleading guilty last year and paying a record $4.3 billion fine. Canada’s penalty on Binance is significantly more minor, coming in at $4.3 million.
Binance Pursues WLFI Deal Tied to Trump
Meanwhile, Binance is considering a joint business venture with World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi venture “inspired” by President Donald Trump. USD1 is reportedly a stablecoin dollar pegged by WLFI. If the Trump family lists this token on the Binance platform, they could generate massive profits due to the losses WLFI has resulted in the Trump family experiencing. It appears that under 60% of the work at WLFI is controlled by Donald Trump and his family.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Binance’s budding friendship with the Donald Trump family dates back to a private December meeting in Abu Dhabi. Eric Trump and Steve Witkoff, a real estate developer who joined forces with World Liberty Financial, were allegedly meeting with Binance founder Changpeng Zhao.
Since that meeting, a potential quid pro quo has come to life. In return for regulatory relief from the Trump administration, the Donald Trump can leverage Binance’s substantial global user base of 250 million users and about $65 billion daily in trading volume to help promote their crypto interests.
Binance Pushes for Zhao’s Pardon as Trump Allies Eye Stake in Binance.US
The most favorable yet, of course, has been taking out a Department of Justice unit that was supposed to investigate crypto enforcement, and the Donald Trump administration has already done that between then and now. But Binance is also pushing for Zhao’s pardon. He served four months in prison for confessing to committing U.S. anti-money laundering and sanction crimes.
Binance didn’t respond when contacted by reporters. Donald Trump representatives, meanwhile, have reportedly been speaking about acquiring a stake in the struggling American arm of the global exchange Binance US. They are also reported to be planning on using Zhao’s network of connections to enhance the relationship between Binance and the venture linked to Donald Trump.
The developments underscore precisely the kind of conspicuous and rare overlap U.S. enforcement actions frequently have, and just as increasingly, the White House is moving to embrace major players in the crypto sector. Recently, Donald Trump stopped convicting figures such as BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes. Washington’s emerging crypto landscape seems to some of the very ‘bad actors’ who criticised Long.
