A representative of the Trump family had talks to buy a participation in the American arm of Binance, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
The participation could have been acquired thanks to the cryptocurrency project supported by Trump World Liberty Financial, indicates the report, citing people familiar with the issue.
Steve Witkoff, a friend of the American president, was involved in the talks in the agreement, added the report. Witkoff and his family founded World Liberty Financial two months before Trump was elected president in November.
The talks started last year after Binance contacted Trump’s allies who propose to conclude an agreement with the family in order to bring the exchange of crypto to the United States
BNB, the native cryptocurrency of the BnB channel linked to the Binance, jumped up to 5% on the news, exceeding $ 600 for the first time in a week.
A representative of Binance.us refused to comment on the report. However, the CEO of Binance, Changpeng “Cz”, Zhao, said in an article on X that the newspaper “was wrong”.
“I had no discussion on a binance with which we will face … Well, anyone,” wrote Cz. The WSJ did not point out that CZ was involved in the talks, but rather that the leaders of Binance were pursuing it.
The WSJ also reported that CZ had asked President Trump for forgiveness. CZ denied having concluded an agreement but did not explicitly say that he had not asked for forgiveness.
“No criminal would take care of forgiveness, especially to be the only one in American history to have been sentenced to prison for a single charge of BSA. It is impression that the article is motivated as an attack on the president and the crypto, and the residual forces of the” war against the crypto “of the last administration are still at work.”, He continued.
The exchange recently saw its Fiat US Dollar services restored after losing the possibility of depositing and removing the USD under the Biden administration.
The former president of the Commission for Securities and Exchange (SEC), Gary Gensler, had previously marked Binance.us “a Cauldron of Fraud” and had tried everything that is in his power to repress the exchange. As a result, the company has lost thousands of customers and was forced to dismiss 70% of its staff after losing billions of dollars.
Binance also took its institutional investments on Wednesday while the Abu-Dhabi MGX-based investment company put $ 2 billion on the stock market.
Update (March 11, 13:40 UTC): Add the BNB movement and Binance’s comment.
Update (March 11, 13:55 UTC): Add general information on Binance.us’ difficulties on the American market.
Update (March 11, 14:50 UTC): Add the CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao Response to the report.
