Author: Rebecca Ballhaus, Patricia Kowsmann, Angus Berwick, Josh Dawsey and Caitlin Ostroff

Translated by Liam

Source: WSJ

According to people familiar with the matter, President Trump's family representatives have negotiated with Binance.US to acquire the latter's equity. The move will allow Trump to conduct business with Binance U.S., which has admitted to violating "anti-money laundering rules" in 2023. Meanwhile, people familiar with the matter said that Binance founder Zhao Changpeng was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty and has been urging Trump to pardon him. Zhao Changpeng is currently Binance's largest shareholder.

Last year, Binance approached Trump's allies and proposed a business deal with the Trump family as part of a plan to bring exiled companies back to the United States.

It is not clear what form the Trump family's holdings will be presented if the deal is concluded, or whether it depends on the amnesty. The possibility includes holdings by the Trump family or reaching a deal through World Liberty Financial, people said. World Liberty Financial is a cryptocurrency company backed by the Trump family and founded last September.

Steve Witkoff, a long-time friend of Trump, is currently his chief negotiator in the Middle East and Ukraine wars, and he is involved in the deal negotiations, people familiar with the matter said. An official denied Witkov's involvement and said he was divesting his business interests.

Trump is increasingly blurring the line between presidency and business investment. His family has been profiting from his election victory, with First Lady Melania Trump signing a $40 million documentary deal, and Trump also seeking tens of millions of dollars in settlements from companies sued years ago, most of which have been used to fund his presidential library.

However, if a felon seeks pardon and he participates in itIn this, this will be an unprecedented coincidence between business and . As Trump signs a series of executive orders conducive to the crypto industry, Binance.US's equity will also be a stunning expansion of the family's crypto business.

World Liberty Financial declined to comment. The Trump Group did not respond to a request for comment. Binance.US declined to comment, and Binance did not respond to a request for comment.

Binance is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, founded by Zhao Changpeng in Shanghai in 2017, but later claimed that its headquarters was not in Shanghai.

U.S. officials said the exchange facilitated transactions with sanctioned groups such as Hamas and the Islamic State, and encouraged U.S. users to hide their locations so that the company can circumvent U.S. anti-money laundering laws.

In 2023, Binance agreed to pay a total of $4.3 billion in fines to resolve the charges. As part of the settlement, Zhao Changpeng was asked to resign as Binance CEO, but he remains a major shareholder. He was released from prison in September last year and is now living in Abu Dhabi.

On Wednesday, Binance said UAE-backed investor MGX acquired a minority stake in the company for $2 billion, the first sovereign institutional investment the exchange has received.

For Binance, Zhao Changpeng's pardon will clear obstacles for the company to return to the U.S. market and make it easier for it to do business overseas.

For the Trump family, holding a stake in Binance.US will give it the opportunity to participate in Coinbase's potential revival in the U.S. cryptocurrency trading market, which is booming with the revocation of regulatory threats that restrict its development.

Return

Binance.US's business has dropped sharply after regulatory action, and Binance began exploring a return to the U.S. market after Trump won the election last year. The company told people it is willing to reach a deal with Trump's company and hopes to eliminate its legal issues, according to people familiar with the matter.

After Trump's victory, Binance formed a working group under CEO Richard Teng, which includes senior legal and compliance personnel to evaluate various programs. Executives know about Zhao Changpeng's convictionAny return becomes complicated because it is difficult to sign new business partners with felons as major shareholders in the United States.

A person familiar with the matter revealed that Binance executives saw potential legal operational space from Justin Sun's story. Justin Sun, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur born in cryptocurrency, invested in a Trump cryptocurrency company last fall when facing civil charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Yuchen Sun is the founder of Public Chain Tron. In November last year, he invested $30 million in Trump-backed cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial, becoming its largest investor. Last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked the court to suspend fraud lawsuits against Justin Sun and his three companies.

A person familiar with the matter said that after Justin Sun invested, Binance executives discussed the same plan internally: inject capital into World Liberty Financial in exchange for Zhao Changpeng's pardon.

Yuchen Sun said the SEC's lawsuit was groundless, but he did not respond to a request for comment. The White House has not responded to whether Trump has played a role in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to suspend his lawsuit against Justin Sun.

Talks

According to people familiar with the matter, Trump's friend Witkov participated in the negotiations with Binance. If the deal is successful, Witkov may also be a beneficiary. Witkov and his two sons co-founded World Liberty Financial with the Trumps.

Witkov once said he left the company after taking office in the White House. Since its inception last fall, World Liberty Financial has been criticized for potentially allowing foreign entities to provide funds to entities that have business dealing with the United States, thus delivering funds to Trump and his family without public disclosure.

One ​​official denied Witkoff was involved in any negotiations, who participated in a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East this week and arrived in Moscow on Thursday, where he could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The people familiar with the matter said that negotiations on trading and Binance pushing Zhao Changpeng to be exempted have been underway since Trump took office.

Last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked the court to suspend another civil lawsuit against Binance and Binance.US, while the SEC task force is working on developing a cryptocurrency regulatory framework.

Exemptions may help Binance repair some of its business damaged by long-term legal disputes.

Exemptions may help Binance repair some of its business damaged by long-term legal disputes.

In 2023, most senior Binance.US employees left the company because the company faced legal difficulties, and U.S. exchanges now have fewer traders than competitors. That year, the platform had a market share in the U.S. that year, and then plunged to a little over 1%. The previous year, it was valued at $4.5 billion.

Absolution clears the roadblocks and merges Binance and Binance.US into a global company. It will also open the door to the EU, as the EU prohibits shareholders from applying for cryptocurrency regulatory licenses by companies found guilty of crimes such as money laundering.

The Binance talks of the Cryptocurrency President are the latest in a series of actions Trump has embraced the cryptocurrency industry on and on his own.

left;">The president usually puts his assets in blind trust during his tenure and avoids business deals to avoid misconduct. Trump has taken a different approach to handing over his assets to his children, who continue to trade in business.

As president, Trump is not bound by the "conflict of interest" rules applicable to other members, but he must comply with the Constitution's prohibition of public officials from takingsubject to foreign payment regulations. The Trump Group said it would not do business with foreign countries, but it did not rule out transactions with foreign private companies.