Trump: Who's CZ? 🤔

President Trump said in a weekend interview that he doesn't know Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, despite just pardoning the crypto billionaire.

Author

Andrew Hayward
November 03, 2025

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📝 What you need to know

President Donald Trump has faced significant flak from Democrats for his pardon of Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who served prison time last year following a settlement over the exchange’s anti-money laundering and sanctions violations.

Trump’s been alleged of a pay-for-play scheme for Zhao, given that the exchange received a $2 billion investment from an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund paid with USD1—the stablecoin of the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial. But in a 60 Minutes interview aired Sunday, Trump denied knowledge of the crypto billionaire.

“I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt,” Trump said.

Even on a day when Bitcoin and other assets are falling even deeper into the red, Trump’s head-scratching denial remains the biggest story in crypto.

Trump Downplays Knowledge of Binance Chief After Pardon Linked to Family's Crypto Dealings

In a rare interview, Trump said he was told Changpeng Zhao was the victim of the Biden administration's “witch hunt” against crypto.

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📚 Watch and Learn

📹️ WATCH: CZ Pumps Aster 25% With Tweet! Crypto Majors Selloff! Trump Distances From CZ!

Crypto majors fell between 2–5% following a Sunday night selloff, with Bitcoin down 2% at $108,100, Ethereum off 4% at $3,720, BNB down 6% at $1,020, and Solana dropping 5% to $176. Among top movers, ASTER (+8%) and TRUMP (+3%) led the gains. ASTER initially surged 25% after CZ announced he had bought the token and planned to hold it long-term, though it has since retraced most of that move. In corporate news, Microsoft signed a $9.7 billion deal to purchase AI cloud services from Bitcoin miner IREN, sending IREN stock up 20% in premarket trading, more.

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