- Binance CEO Richard Teng rejected allegations that the exchange promoted the Trump-affiliated stablecoin USD1 to help secure a presidential pardon for former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
- Teng claimed that the MGX investment in Binance used USD1 due to MGX’s independent decision, despite reports that Binance helped build the stablecoin’s underlying technology.
- The controversial pardon has drawn scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers, with Senator Elizabeth Warren alleging Zhao “financed President Trump’s stablecoin and lobbied for a pardon,” a claim that Zhao’s legal team has threatened to sue over.
Binance CEO Richard Teng rejected allegations that the exchange promoted USD1, a Trump-affiliated stablecoin, to help secure a presidential pardon for former CEO Changpeng (CZ) Zhao.
Teng also said MGX independently chose USD1 for the transaction tied to its strategic investment in Binance.
“We didn’t partake in that decision,” he told CNBC reporters on Tuesday. This comes following a Wall Street Journal piece that claimed Binance not only facilitated the MGX settlement in USD1 but also helped build the stablecoin’s underlying technology, citing anonymous sources.
After pleading guilty in 2023 and spending four months in prison in April 2024, Zhao was pardoned by Trump this October. Trump described Zhao as a “respected entrepreneur” and said the pardon was about keeping the US competitive in the crypto industry.
Yet the president claimed he doesn’t even know who he is in a 60 Minutes interview.
Read more: EU Eyes Centralised Oversight of Stock and Crypto Exchanges to Rival US Markets
Links Between Binance and WLF
A July Bloomberg article, citing three unnamed sources, said Binance helped write parts of USD1’s code (Zhao threatened to file a defamation suit in response). Moreover, WLFI benefited from the Binance listing and a partnership with PancakeSwap, a marketplace tied to Binance’s ecosystem.
WLFI’s website discloses that DT Marks DEFI LLC and Trump family members receive significant revenue shares and hold WLFI tokens. It also states that Trump, his relatives, and affiliated entities are not officers, directors, founders, or managers of WLFI.
But lawmakers have pressed the issue. For example, Senator Chris Murphy said in October that Binance.US was “promoting Trump crypto” a week after Trump “pardoned Binance’s owner”.
Senator Elizabeth Warren went further, alleging Zhao financed Trump’s stablecoin and lobbied for a pardon. Zhao’s legal team at BakerHostetler demanded a retraction and threatened legal action, calling the claim false and defamatory.
Related: WEF President Warns of Potential AI and Crypto Bubbles Amid $500B Tech Investment Surge
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