Changpeng Zhao has denied a WSJ claim that he worked as an assistant to Donald Trump’s WLFI project

What’s new? The founder and former CEO of the largest centralized crypto exchange (CEX) Binance, Changpeng Zhao, also known by the nickname CZ, criticized the Wall Street Journal for an article about his connection to US President Donald Trump’s family-backed DeFi protocol World Liberty Financial (WLFI). The reporters claimed that CZ assisted in organizing overseas trips for the WLFI team.

Source: X.com

What else is known? The founders of WLFI are billionaire Steve Witkoff and his son Zach, entrepreneurs Zach Folkman and Chase Herro, and Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric. The project is positioned as an alternative to traditional banking for ordinary citizens, it has a native token WLFI and a USD1 stablecoin pegged to the dollar.

Earlier this week, WSJ reached out to CZ with questions that it said initially contained a number of inaccuracies. For example, the reporters claimed that Zhao was acting as Zach Witkoff’s go-between on foreign trips, as he himself had met with officials in Pakistan, Malaysia, and Kyrgyzstan in recent months.

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They also claimed that Zhao had connected the WLFI team with the CEO of the Cryptocurrency Council, Bilal Bin Saqib, during his visit to Pakistan. This advisory body was established on March 14 and Zhao was part of it.

Journalists noted that a week after Zhao’s visit to Pakistan, WLFI appointed Saqib as its advisor, and on April 26, the project team arrived in the country to sign a memorandum of understanding with the government.

Following the conversation with Zhao, reporters published a story that reported, “Helping facilitate some introductions for World Liberty’s foreign travels is Changpeng Zhao, <…> World Liberty’s spokesman said Zhao and Zach Witkoff are friends but that Zhao doesn’t act as a fixer.”

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Zhao himself in his X-account denied the information in the article, emphasizing that he did not act as someone’s assistant, did not prepare “introductions for World Liberty’s foreign travels” and did not connect Saqib with the project team. Moreover, Saqib and members of WLFI were acquainted long before Zhao himself first met the official during his trip to Pakistan.

“WSJ is just the mouthpiece. There are forces in the US that want to hinder efforts in making the US the capital of crypto. They want to attack crypto, global crypto leaders, and the pro-crypto administration,” Zhao concluded.

Earlier this month, Zhao confirmed the information about asking for a pardon from the US president.