Changpeng "CZ" Zhao is pushing back against speculation linking his presidential pardon to business dealings with the Trump family. Speaking from Davos, the Binance founder flatly denied any commercial relationship exists, calling reports "misconstrued" after scrutiny intensified over a $2 billion Abu Dhabi investment using Trump-backed stablecoin USD1. The statement comes three months after Trump pardoned Zhao for money laundering charges that sent him to prison for four months.
The crypto world's most controversial comeback story just got more complicated. Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, fresh off a presidential pardon that erased his money laundering conviction, is now playing defense against accusations his freedom came with strings attached to the Trump family's burgeoning crypto empire.
"There's no business relationships whatsoever," Zhao told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin Thursday from the World Economic Forum in Davos, his first major appearance since Trump wiped his record clean in October 2025. The denial is direct, but the optics tell a messier story that's got Washington's crypto skeptics asking questions.
The timeline raises eyebrows. Binance, still the world's largest crypto exchange despite its legal troubles, accepted a $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi's state-owned firm MGX in March 2025. Nothing unusual there except the payment method: MGX used USD1, a stablecoin created by World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture run by President Trump's family. Seven months later, Trump pardoned Zhao.
"MGX is the investor. They choose USD1," Zhao explained to CNBC. "My request to them was they pay us in crypto. I don't want to deal with banks, really. Many people misconstrued that." He's framing it as a simple payment preference, nothing more than a founder who'd rather avoid traditional banking rails after his company paid $4.3 billion to settle with the Department of Justice in 2023.
But that Binance didn't just accept USD1 as payment - the exchange also helped build the technology behind the stablecoin, citing sources familiar with the matter. Zhao told CNBC that Binance has since converted the investment out of USD1 "in portions over time," treating it like any other currency. "Stablecoin is just a currency for payment. Just because I accepted that, it doesn't mean I invested in the issuer of that," he said.
