In this news:
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao denied a report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that the Trump family had reached out to explore a deal for a financial stake in the U.S. arm of the crypto exchange reached out to the Wall Street Journal and for comment by email on Thursday It MattersCryptocurrency remains a headache for regulators and investors alike as supporters continue to insist digital currencies represent the future of finance while opponents continue to treat them as little more than in November 2023 pled guilty to violating U.S. laws against money laundering after failing to report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions involving designated terrorist groups including Hamas, al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, according to , also known as CZ, served four months in prison and Binance paid a penalty of $4.3 billion as part of the plea deal. Zhao founded the platform with partner Yi He in 2017 in To KnowThe WSJ on Thursday published a report claiming that Trump family representatives had held talks for a stake in Binance, which included a push from Zhao for a pardon, having served his four months in prison last Journal's report noted that 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 stated that Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in negotiations for peace deals in Gaza and Ukraine, was part of the talks for a Binance deal, but an administration official denied any such , Zhao took to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to deny the report, saying the WSJ "got the facts wrong."Zhao accused the Journal of trying to "make a story to report" and insisted he has "had no discussions of a Binance US deal with ... well, anyone.""No felon would mind a pardon, especially being the only one in US history who was ever sentenced to prison for a single BSA charge," Zhao wrote."Feels like the article is motivated as an attack on the President and crypto, and the residual forces of the 'war on crypto' from the last administration are still at work," Zhao continued. "I am always happy to make crypto great everywhere, US and the rest of the world."Zhao also joked that it was "good to see that even WSJ thinks I should be pardoned." The WSJ has yet to respond to Zhao's last week agreed a major deal with United Arab Emirates-backed investor MGX, which bought a minority stake in the company for $2 billion, marking the first major institutional investment in the exchange—and a much-needed boost after a rough couple of months for currency bitcoin as of midday Thursday was priced at around $80,706—a small bounce back from its low of $78,000 hit earlier this week but a far cry from December 2024's peak of around $106, maintains a higher value than it did at any time prior to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, which saw cryptocurrencies surge following Trump's victory, with investors expecting major support for the markets under a second Trump Donald Trump displayed that support last week when he announced the formation of a national Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which he did through executive order. Strategic reserves are meant to stabilize U.S. interests like national defense or economic People Are SayingBinance co-founder Changpeng Zhao wrote on X: "You probably didn't notice, the "MGX invests in Binance" news was announced directly on X, Binance Square and Blog. It was not embargoed with any traditional media. You are the media now," adding in a second post, "And no leaks."Senate Banking and Housing Democrats' X account posted on Thursday morning: "Bloomberg just broke news that the Trump family's crypto company has been in discussions with Binance on doing business, including possibly creating a new stablecoin. We have a chance to fix this stablecoin bill to prevent this kind of naked corruption."American investor and bitcoin billionaire Tyler Winklevoss last week posted to X: "I have nothing against XRP, SOL, or ADA but I do not think they are suitable for a Strategic Reserve. Only one digital asset in the world right now meets the bar and that digital asset is bitcoin."
.png)
