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Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has taken to his account on the X social media platform to criticize the Wall Street Journal article about him allegedly pushing the president of the U.S. for a pardon.
The aforementioned popular newspaper also stated that Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial was in talks to buy a stake in Binance, posting photos of CZ and Trump next to each other, hinting that negotiations are being held with Zhao.
CZ denies any Binance stake negotiations
CZ himself, who continues to hold 90% of the Binance stake, has denied having any negotiations with the president’s administration on this issue or asking the president for a legal pardon in this way.
“Sorry to disappoint. The WSJ article got the facts wrong,” he tweeted. CZ said that the WSJ has probably asked “hundreds of people to have 20 people” reach out to him. They told CZ about what was happening.
“In essence, they tried hard to make a story to report,” CZ wrote about the WSJ story.
Yuri MolchanThe former Binance CEO stated that he had no discussions about the Binance US deal with anyone at all to get himself pardoned by the U.S. president: “Fact: I have had no discussions of a Binance US deal with…well, anyone.”
CZ admitted that he does not mind getting a pardon, but he believes that this article looked more like "motivated as an attack on the President and crypto," blaming this on the previous administration: "The residual forces of the 'war on crypto' from the last administration are still at work."
Zhao said that he is “happy to make crypto great everywhere, US and the rest of the world.”
Here's what CZ's been up to recently
As a reminder, CZ spent four months in the U.S. last year, from May to September, on charges of breaking the Bank Secrecy Act. However, he was forced to step down from the CEO position at Binance and was replaced with Richard Teng in November 2023.
He has started his own online education nonprofit project called Giggle Academy to educate underprivileged children in English, math and blockchain.
Recently, CZ also shared an update about the book he has been writing. Last year, before starting his prison term, he tweeted that he would have plenty of free time and might write a book.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov