Just months before its creator requested a presidential pardon, the cryptocurrency behemoth Binance assisted in developing and marketing the Trump family’s stablecoin, according to a recent article.
Although he has recently embraced cryptocurrencies and stated his desire to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world,” President Donald Trump at first referred to Bitcoin as a “scam.”
The stablecoin USD1, which is based on the US dollar, was issued in March by World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency business founded by his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. last year.
However, Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange that Changpeng “CZ” Zhao established and is currently pursuing a presidential pardon, secretly wrote the fundamental code that drives USD1.
According to the report, such code enabled an Emirati investment company to purchase a $2 billion stake in Binance with USD1 rather than a rival coin. Additionally, Binance advertised USD1 to its 275 million users.
Binance and World Liberty refuted rumors that they were in discussions to create a new stablecoin around the same time as USD1 was introduced.
According to the report, it’s unclear if World Liberty paid Binance or Zhao to develop the coin.
According to the publication, the Trumps may earn tens of millions of dollars annually in interest revenue alone from the assets supporting the $2 billion in USD1 that are now in Binance wallets.
Additionally, regulatory filings from Circle Internet Group Inc., another stablecoin issuer, provide some information about the market value of World Liberty Financial’s partnership with Binance. In exchange for sharing future profits, Circle paid Binance $60 million in advance to promote its coin.
In 2023, Zhao and Binance were charged with breaking federal money laundering statutes in the United States. Zhao resigned from the corporation and paid a $50 million fine, while the company also paid $4.3 billion in fines. Both entered guilty pleas.
Zhao admitted to felony money laundering charges and was also given a four-month jail term. He denied requesting a pardon from the Trump administration in March, but in May he admitted that he had done so.
According to a Binance representative, Zhao was no longer employed by the firm and that his choice to get a pardon was “a personal one.”
A representative for World Liberty told the publication that the report’s assertions were “factually deficient and designed to further a political agenda,” but she would not address specific queries or correct the record.
