The Trump family has discussed taking a stake in the exiled crypto exchange Binance at the same time its billionaire founder is angling for a pardon, a report alleged Thursday.
Acolytes of Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, of China, reached out to the Trump family last year and proposed a deal that would make the world’s largest crypto exchange available in the U.S. again, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
That deal would see the Trump family become stakeholders in Binance’s U.S. arm, the Journal reported, though its sources did not say how big of a chunk the family would acquire—or if they would be required to pay.
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The Journal said its unclear if a potential deal between Binance and the first family would be contingent on a presidential pardon or not. It also did not say what Trumps were directly involved, or if the president himself was personally in any discussions.
The only person identified in the negotiations was Steve Witkoff, a longtime Donald Trump pal who is now his top negotiator in the Middle East and Ukraine. An official in the Trump administration denied Witkoff’s involvement to the Journal, however.
Binance was banned in the U.S. in 2019 after it was busted violating anti-money laundering requirements. The fallout from the violations forced Zhao, who pleaded guilty on related charges, to spend four months in federal prison last year. He is now considered to be a felon, but a pardon would wipe that unsavory designation away.
Binance has since reentered the U.S. market as Binance.US, a technically new company that is in compliance with federal law. It has lagged behind competitors like Coinbase, however, and has not recaptured Binance’s previous market share.
The White House did not respond to questions emailed by the Daily Beast about a potential Binance deal or pardon for the company’s 48-year-old founder.
Trump and his loved ones, particularly Donald Trump Jr., have become active in the crypto space lately. That included Trump and the first lady launching their own crypto coins that ballooned their net worth despite tanking in price. Trump also established a strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies this month with tokens the U.S government already owns.
Sources told the Journal the Trump family may welcome a Binance deal through World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that the president has publicly backed since it launched in September.
Binance forked over $4.3 billion to settle allegations in 2023, which included claims it “facilitated transactions” with groups like Hamas and the Islamic State while also encouraging U.S. users to obscure their location.
That same settlement required Zhao to step down as Binance’s chief executive, but he was permitted to remain its majority shareholder. Forbes estimates Zhao is worth $61.4 billion.
Binance’s new CEO, Richard Teng, has been singing Trump’s praises as of late. He told CNBC on Thursday that the Trump administration will remove “hostility” against the crypto industry.
“We have moved from a period where there’s big regulatory uncertainty and in many sense, some regulatory hostility towards the industry, to one where the largest economy of the world said ‘we want to embrace crypto,’” he said.
