Representatives for the Trump family held talks to take a financial stake in the U.S. arm of crypto exchange Binance, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Simultaneously, Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao has also been pushing the Trump administration for a pardon, despite his own guilty plea in November 2023 as part of a settlement between Binance and U.S. authorities, the people said.
Talks reportedly began after Binance reached out to Trump allies last year to strike a deal as part of a plan to revive the crypto exchange's diminished position in the U.S. market. Last month, Binance.US restored fiat deposits and withdrawals for the first time since 2023, when the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the firm, alleging violations of securities laws, leading banking partners to cut ties with the exchange.
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 WSJ said. Possibilities reportedly include a direct stake or a deal being made by the Trump family-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial.
Zhao, also widely known by his initials CZ, was sentenced to four months in prison last April after he pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an "effective anti-money laundering program." Zhao was given a $50 million fine, and Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion, in one of the largest corporate settlements in history.
Zhao was released from prison in September and remains Binance's largest shareholder.
The Block reached out to the White House and Binance for comment.
President Donald Trump has increased his involvement in the crypto industry significantly in recent months, off the back of a very pro-crypto election campaign. Beyond his connection to World Liberty Financial, President Trump has launched a series of NFT collections, as well as an official memecoin on the Solana blockchain, sparking some controversy.
Trump also signed an executive order on March 6 to create a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, established from the approximately 200,000 BTC ($17 billion) already owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil proceedings, minus those that still need to be returned to victims of crime.
Additionally, Trump directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin, provided they have no incremental costs to American taxpayers.
The executive order also established a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile consisting of cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. However, the government will not acquire additional assets for the stockpile beyond those obtained through forfeiture proceedings.
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