Binance CEO Richard Teng denied experiences that Binance.US was in deal talks with entities affiliated with US President Donald Trump throughout a March 18 panel at Blockworks’ 2025 Digital Asset Summit in New York.
Teng’s assertion reiterated the place taken by Binance’s founder, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, and Trump, each of whom denied the story final week.
On March 13, The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance.US, an independently-operated US cryptocurrency change, was discussing promoting an fairness curiosity to Trump-affiliated enterprise entities, together with a attainable cope with World Liberty Financial, the Trump household’s decentralized finance (DeFi) challenge.
“I believe both World Liberty Financial as well as CZ himself have tweeted and denied the reforms, right? So that there’s really nothing else to add,” Teng mentioned through the summit, which was attended by Cointelegraph.
Richard Teng talking at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in New York. Source: Cointelegraph
Related: Donald Trump’s memecoin generated $350M for creators: Report
Teng acknowledged that Binance.US is legally and operationally distinct from its bigger namesake.
“US and dotcom are quite different animals, right? They have different set of shareholders, they have different board of directors and different CEO running the show,” he mentioned.
However, Teng did reward Trump, saying that Binance has benefited from the president’s “pro-crypto” insurance policies regardless of indirectly working within the US.
“Last year was a landmark year in that institutions are finally coming on board,” Teng mentioned.
“With President Trump coming out with both [a] strategic crypto reserve or asset stockpile, it will force governments around the world […] to look at this space quite seriously.”
In a departure from his predecessor, Joe Biden, Trump has mentioned he desires to make America the “world’s crypto capital” and has appointed pro-industry management to key regulatory posts.
Source: CZ
Potential conflicts of curiosity
Citing sources accustomed to the matter, The Wall Street Journal report talked about that CZ — who served four months in prison in the US — has been pushing for the Trump administration to grant him a pardon.
“It is unclear what form the Trump family stake would take if the deal comes together or whether it would be contingent on a pardon,” the report mentioned.
Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency change, however Binance.US lags Coinbase within the US market.
CZ denied the report in an X post printed the identical day. Trump additionally denied the report in a put up on Truth Social, his social media platform.
“The Globalist Wall Street Journal has no idea what they are doing or saying. They are owned by the polluted thinking of the European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of ‘screwing’ the United States of America,” the president wrote.
Trump’s Jan. 18 memecoin launch and his ties to crypto agency World Liberty Financial have upturned norms for US presidents and raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, consultants have mentioned.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
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