Trump's crypto ventures ($TRUMP, World Liberty Financial, USD1) and the Binance founder's pardon (2025-2026) Case In April 2025 Sen. Chris Murphy said Trump's meme coin let CEOs and foreign oligarchs secretly send the president money in exchange for favors; PolitiFact found experts agreed it was possible but saw no evidence it had happened. Since then, a June 2026 Reuters investigation estimated the Trump family made about $2.3 billion from four crypto ventures while outside investors lost a similar amount. In May 2025 Binance accepted the family's USD1 stablecoin for a $2 billion investment, and in October 2025 Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao after months of lobbying. Democrats call the pardon a payoff; Zhao's lawyer, the family's firm and the White House deny any link. No source found shows anyone paying for a pardon in crypto. The claim: Murphy, Apr. 9, 2025 On Apr. 9, 2025, Sen. Chris Murphy posted on X that the president was running a backdoor bribery scheme in which any CEO or foreign oligarch could secretly send him money through his crypto coin in exchange for favors. Don Winslow's repost of it is the screenshot in circulation. PolitiFact (Apr. 17, 2025) reported that legal experts said it was possible for the coin to be used to channel money to Trump beyond legal campaign-contribution limits, including from foreigners, but that there was no evidence it had happened. One expert said he was not saying it was happening, only that it could, and that any such transactions could be traced. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told PolitiFact that the president's assets are in a trust managed by his children and that there are no conflicts of interest. Murphy's office pointed PolitiFact to news reports about the meme coins. In May 2025, Murphy and Rep. Sam Liccardo introduced the MEME Act to ban presidents and members of Congress from selling meme coins. Murphy described the coin as a way for a corporate CEO, a Saudi prince or a foreign oligarch with business before the administration to send Trump money privately. The ventures and the money Trump launched the $TRUMP meme coin days before his 2025 inauguration. It rose from $7 to $75 in a day and was about $8 by Apr. 17, 2025. Buyers can purchase it anonymously. According to the coin's site, CIC Digital LLC (a Trump Organization affiliate) and Fight Fight Fight LLC together own 80% of the tokens. In May 2025 the coin's top 220 holders were offered a dinner with the president. Trump said he had not even looked at how much he made from the coin. World Liberty Financial, launched by Trump's sons, is a crypto venture in which a Trump-family entity held a 60% stake as of April 2025. By June 2026 World Liberty's disclosures said about 38% of its parent's equity was held by an entity affiliated with Trump and family members, and that the family is entitled to 75% of the proceeds of its token sales. A Reuters investigation published June 9, 2026 estimated the Trump family made about $2.3 billion from four crypto ventures through the end of April 2026 while putting up little or no capital, and that outside investors lost a similar amount. It estimated about $1.2 billion in $TRUMP revenue, with about $616 million going to the family, and more than $1.4 billion from World Liberty tokens. A World Liberty spokesman said the firm does not validate third-party methodologies for valuing its tokens. World Liberty disclosures show the Trump family was entitled to roughly $500 million of the proceeds of an August 2025 deal in which the publicly traded company Alt5 Sigma bought $1.5 billion of World Liberty tokens; investors in that company saw steep losses. A House Judiciary Democrats' report estimated Trump's crypto holdings were worth as much as $11.6 billion and that he earned more than $800 million from crypto asset sales; these are the Democrats' estimates. Binance, USD1 and the Zhao pardon World Liberty launched its USD1 stablecoin in March 2025. In May 2025, Binance accepted USD1 as payment for a $2 billion investment in the exchange by Abu Dhabi's MGX, a boost to the venture that, per Reuters, still accounts for most of the USD1 in circulation. Bloomberg reported that Binance also helped write USD1's initial code. Changpeng Zhao, Binance's founder, pleaded guilty in November 2023 to a money-laundering-related charge and served four months. In May 2025, after Zhao said on a podcast that he had applied for a pardon, Sens. Warren, Durbin and Blumenthal wrote to the White House. The Wall Street Journal reported that Zhao used a new informal path to pardons that lets applicants with deep pockets or connected lobbyists bypass the traditional process, and that lobbyists close to Trump say their going rate to advocate for a pardon is $1 million. Zhao's lobbyist Ches McDowell chatted with the president. Trump pardoned Zhao in late October 2025 (announced Oct. 23). White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Zhao was prosecuted by the Biden administration in its war on cryptocurrency. Days after the pardon, Binance began promoting USD1 sales on its U.S. platform. Asked about Zhao on 60 Minutes on Nov. 2, 2025, Trump said he did not know who he was and did not think he had ever met him, and that he had been told Zhao was treated badly by the Biden administration. Interviewer Norah O'Donnell noted that Binance had facilitated the $2 billion USD1 purchase. Enforcement retreat: DOJ and SEC On Apr. 7, 2025, Todd Blanche, then deputy attorney general, issued a memo titled Ending Regulation by Prosecution that disbanded the Justice Department's National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and narrowed crypto prosecutions. ProPublica reported that he held crypto at the time and had signed an ethics agreement to divest within 90 days of confirmation and to stay out of matters affecting those holdings until he did; ethics filings show he divested more than a month after the memo. Democratic senators wrote that Blanche held bitcoin and ether worth $158,000 to $470,000 when he issued the memo and sold or transferred them between May and June 2025. Financial disclosures give only broad value ranges. In a June ethics filing, Blanche said the holdings were gifted to his grandchild and adult children. The Campaign Legal Center asked the DOJ inspector general to investigate whether the memo benefited his own investments. The SEC and Justin Sun asked a court in February 2025 to pause its fraud case against him, a month after Sun's World Liberty token purchases reached $75 million (he began with $30 million in November 2024). On Mar. 5, 2026 the claims against Sun and two foundations were dismissed with no admission of wrongdoing, and his former company Rainberry agreed to pay a $10 million civil penalty. Reps. Maxine Waters, Brad Sherman and Sean Casten warned the SEC chair that the Sun matter raised concerns of a pay-to-play scheme, and House Democrats said the SEC was retreating from crypto enforcement while crypto companies gave at least $85 million to Trump's reelection campaign. The reporting reviewed does not show that either decision was made because of those holdings or investments; the SEC has not said the World Liberty connection played a role. The Campaign Legal Center's Jan. 22, 2026 complaint asked the DOJ inspector general to investigate whether Blanche violated the criminal conflict-of-interest law (18 U.S.C. § 208) by issuing the memo while owning digital assets. An update corrected the value of his holdings to between $159,011 and $485,000. A Justice Department spokesperson told ProPublica in January 2026 that the matter was appropriately flagged, addressed and cleared in advance, and called the complaint another baseless character assassination. Blanche has been acting attorney general since spring 2026, and the Senate confirmed him as attorney general on Aug. 8, 2026, by a 50-49 vote, with Sens. Collins and Murkowski opposed. At his July 15, 2026 confirmation hearing, Sen. Mazie Hirono said Blanche's memo eviscerated crypto enforcement and that Americans reported more than $11 billion in crypto fraud losses to the FBI last year. Blanche answered that crypto enforcement is way up compared with a year and a half earlier. Sen. Dick Durbin's office says Blanche denies he should have recused himself from the memo. Quiver Quantitative reports that Blanche's 2026 federal financial disclosure carries an annotation that the DOJ inspector general declined further action on his reported crypto transactions. It says the filing gives no reasoning and does not describe the matter as an exoneration. This entry has not reviewed the filing, and it is unclear how far the inspector general looked into the matter. Durbin's office also says Blanche signed an order giving Trump, his family and his businesses immunity from federal tax law violations before May 19, 2026. This is a separate matter that this entry has not examined. Blanche's Feb. 10, 2025 ethics agreement, posted by the Office of Government Ethics, promised to divest a list of crypto assets (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Ethereum Classic, Polygon, Polkadot, Basic Attention Token, Quant and Decentralized) and his Coinbase stock as soon as practicable and no later than 90 days after confirmation. It also promised not to take part in any matter with a direct and predictable effect on those holdings until he had divested them, unless he first obtained a written waiver under 18 U.S.C. § 208(b)(1). Blanche was confirmed on Mar. 5, 2025. His periodic transaction report, signed June 3, 2025, lists sales between May 29 and June 2, 2025: Bitcoin ($100,001 to $250,000) and Ethereum ($15,001 to $50,000) on June 2, and smaller sales of Solana, Polygon, Polkadot, Quant and Ethereum Classic ($1,001 to $15,000 each) and of Coinbase stock. An annotation says Bitcoin, Solana, Cardano and Ethereum were gifted in their entirety to his grandchild and adult children. These dates fall within 90 days of his confirmation, but about eight weeks after the Apr. 7 memo. The dispute therefore turns on the commitment not to participate in matters affecting his holdings until he had divested them, not on the 90-day deadline. The Justice Department told ProPublica the matter was cleared in advance. The senators' Jan. 28, 2026 letter asked whether Blanche received a written determination under § 208, and no public answer was found. Blanche's June 11, 2026 nominee disclosure, which this entry reviewed, lists no crypto holdings and does not contain the inspector general annotation that Quiver describes. The report Quiver cites was not located. The ethics agreement also lists Basic Attention Token and a token named "Decentralized" among the assets to divest. The June 3, 2025 transaction report shows no sale of either, and the gift annotation names only Bitcoin, Solana, Cardano and Ethereum. Campaign Legal Center's original complaint made the same observation. The report covers only transactions over $1,000, so the omission is not proof that the two were kept, and no source says what happened to them. Campaign Legal Center's original complaint also concedes that the sales and gifts met the 90-day divestiture deadline. Its argument is that Blanche still held the assets when he signed the memo, and that the memo is a "particular matter" of general applicability to the digital asset industry under 18 U.S.C. § 208, citing the Office of Government Ethics' 2023 advisory on digital asset ownership. Responses, and what the sources do not establish Leavitt told Axios that neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest, and said every pardon request gets a thorough examination. World Liberty said it had no role in the clemency process; its lawyer said interactions with Binance were routine. Zhao's lawyer said the pardon was not linked to any business decision and that Zhao was pardoned for justice. A Binance representative described its involvement with World Liberty products as limited. Rep. Maxine Waters called the pardon the payoff and a blatant example of pay-to-play corruption, saying Zhao spent months lobbying Trump and his family while funneling billions into World Liberty. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Zhao boosted a Trump crypto venture and lobbied for a pardon. In a June 23, 2026 floor speech, Murphy listed the crypto coin, the Zhao pardon and other pardons for people connected to Trump-linked lobbyists or donors as parts of what he called a system of pay-to-play. He also said Trump made $57 million selling crypto tokens to entities tied to North Korea, Iran and Russia. These are Murphy's claims, which this entry has not verified. The sources reviewed do not show anyone paying for a pardon, or paying Trump, in crypto, or a traced foreign payment through the coin. They do not show that the DOJ or SEC declined to pursue cases in exchange for money. The pardon-related payments documented are lobbyist fees (the Journal's $1 million going rate) and, per Murphy, donation-linked cases. Perspectives Critic — Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) The president's crypto coin is a backdoor through which any CEO or foreign oligarch can secretly send him money in exchange for favors, and no senator or previous president has run such side hustles. In his June 2026 floor speech he linked the coin, the Zhao pardon and other pardons to a system of pay-to-play, saying Zhao got out of prison after agreeing to help Trump get rich. Critic — Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Waters said Zhao spent months lobbying Trump and his family while funneling billions into World Liberty, and that the pardon was the payoff and pay-to-play corruption. Warren said Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering, boosted a Trump crypto venture, and lobbied for a pardon. Official position — White House (spokespeople Anna Kelly and Karoline Leavitt) The president's assets are in a trust managed by his children and there are no conflicts of interest; neither the president nor his family have ever engaged in conflicts of interest. Zhao was prosecuted by the Biden administration in its war on cryptocurrency, and every pardon request gets a thorough examination. Defender — World Liberty Financial and Zhao's lawyer World Liberty had no role in the clemency process, and its interactions with Binance were routine. Zhao's lawyer said his pardon was not linked to any business decision and that he was pardoned for justice. World Liberty's spokesman said the firm does not validate third-party methodologies for valuing its tokens, in response to Reuters' investor-loss estimates. Expert view — Frank Emmert (Indiana University) and Richard Painter (University of Minnesota), legal experts quoted by PolitiFact Emmert said the coin's transactions can facilitate donations beyond legal limits and by foreigners, and that he was not saying it was happening, only that if it did it should be traced. Painter said he would prefer elected officials not trade crypto because it can be used to pay bribes or receive payments from foreign governments. Editorial read — The Author Editorial view, not a sourced finding: the shape of these dealings looks like bribery and corruption at the highest office in the United States. The view rests on the documented pattern in this entry: a president's family earning an estimated $2.3 billion from crypto ventures that people with business before the government can buy into; an exchange founder who helped the family's stablecoin, lobbied for a pardon and received one; a deputy attorney general who disbanded the crypto enforcement team while holding crypto; and an SEC case against a major World Liberty investor that ended in dismissal. No court, inspector general or government investigator has found that any of it was a bribe, and the White House, World Liberty and Zhao's lawyer deny any link between the business dealings and the official actions. Research notes Scope: the claim in the screenshot (Murphy, Apr. 9, 2025) was an allegation; PolitiFact found it plausible in principle but unproven. The sources since then document the family's crypto income, the Binance-USD1-pardon sequence (which critics call a payoff and the parties deny), and a documented retreat in DOJ and SEC crypto enforcement with undisputed conflict-of-interest facts about Blanche. They do not document crypto payments for pardons or enforcement decisions made in exchange for money. If you want that stated as a conclusion, it fits as the Author's editorial view. Sourcing: the Reuters investigation (June 9, 2026) and the Wall Street Journal report are cited through summaries or excerpts because the originals are paywalled. Murphy's floor speech contains his own claims; its date for the Zhao pardon (Oct. 7) differs from the news reports (Oct. 23), so this entry uses the news reports. The Blanche facts now rest on primary Office of Government Ethics documents (his Feb. 2025 ethics agreement, the June 2025 transaction report, and his June 2026 nominee disclosure) as well as ProPublica, the senators' letter and the Campaign Legal Center complaint. The senators' letter gives $158,000 to $470,000 and the complaint's update gives $159,011 to $485,000; the PDF still hosted on the complaint's file path carries the superseded $274,013 to $785,000 range, which the update corrected. The DOJ's January 2026 statement comes from ProPublica's own report. The inspector general annotation rests on a single secondary source (Quiver Quantitative), and the filing it cites was not located. Open leads: - Murphy's Sept. 18, 2025 claim about $57 million in token sales to entities tied to Iran, Russia and North Korea: find the underlying report. - The OGE filing with the inspector general annotation. It is not in the June 2026 nominee report. Quiver calls it a 2026 disclosure that was newly released in September; it is probably an annual or amended report, and the Office of Government Ethics' public index did not surface it in searches. It can be requested from OGE (Form 201). Also what the inspector general actually reviewed. - What happened to the Basic Attention Token and "Decentralized" holdings named in the ethics agreement, which appear in neither the sale list nor the gift annotation. - Whether Blanche received a written waiver or ethics determination before the Apr. 7, 2025 memo. The DOJ says the matter was cleared in advance; the senators' Feb. 11 deadline for documents produced no public answer. - Blanche's May 19, 2026 tax-audit immunity addendum for Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization now has its own entry (trump-v-irs-settlement-the-1-776-billion-anti-weaponization). Whether any return covering the family's crypto income falls within it is not established. - Whether any government body has opened an inquiry into the coin or the Zhao pardon. - Other crypto-sector pardons (Ulbricht, BitMEX founders) and any lobbying or donor links. - The Trump family's 2025 annual financial disclosure (June 30, 2026) for the primary figures. - The Alt5 Sigma transaction and Sun's later dispute and litigation with World Liberty. Note The White House, World Liberty Financial and Zhao's representatives deny that Zhao's pardon was linked to Binance's dealings with the Trump family's crypto venture; critics say the timing and benefits show a payoff. No source establishes a quid pro quo. Sources [1] Sen. Chris Murphy — post on X, Apr. 9, 2025 (screenshot provided by The Author) (https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1909955983595405736) · 2025-04-09 [2] PolitiFact — Legal experts say Donald Trump's cryptocurrency raises questions about ethics and secrecy (https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/apr/17/donald-trump-chris-murphy-cryptocurrency-coins/) · 2025-04-17 [3] Sen. Chris Murphy — Senate floor speech, "Unprecedented Corruption of Trump White House Over the Last 500 Days" (press release and transcript) (https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-details-unprecedented-corruption-of-trump-white-house-over-the-last-500-days) · 2026-06-23 [4] Yahoo Finance — Trump crypto: family netted $2.3bn while investors lost the same (summarizing Reuters investigation, June 9, 2026) (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/trump-crypto-family-netted-2-105601198.html) · 2026-06 [5] CNBC — Trump family got about $500M from crypto venture, but investors saw steep losses (https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/09/trump-world-liberty-financial-crypto-alt5-sigma.html) · 2026-06-09 [6] House Judiciary Democrats — report "Trump, Crypto, and a New Age of Corruption" (press release) (https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/new-report-exposes-the-trump-family-s-multi-billion-dollar-crypto-empire-fueled-by-self-dealing-and-corrupt-foreign-interests) · 2025-11 [7] CBS News — Trump pardons billionaire crypto exchange founder who pleaded guilty to money laundering-related charge (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/changpeng-zhao-trump-pardons-binance-crypto-exchange-founder-money-laundering/) · 2025-10-23 [8] CBS News — Trump on Binance cryptocurrency tycoon he pardoned: "I don't know who he is" (60 Minutes) (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-binance-cryptocurrency-tycoon-he-pardoned-dont-know-who-he-is/) · 2025-11 [9] Axios — Trump: "I don't know" Binance founder he pardoned (https://www.axios.com/2025/11/03/trump-binance-founder-pardon-60-minutes-changpeng-zhao) · 2025-11-03 [10] NBC News — Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/binance-pardon-trump-changpeng-zhao-crypto-rcna239371) · 2025-10 [11] FactCheck.org — Addressing Trump's claims about the pardon of Binance founder (https://www.factcheck.org/2025/11/addressing-trumps-claims-about-the-pardon-of-binance-founder) · 2025-11 [12] Reuters via Yahoo News — Trump pardons convicted Binance founder Zhao (https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-pardons-convicted-binance-founder-202135684.html) · 2025-10-23 [13] Election Law Blog — excerpts of Wall Street Journal: Inside the new fast track to a presidential pardon (https://electionlawblog.org/?p=153622) · 2025-10 [14] CT Mirror — Murphy, Liccardo introduce bill to ban presidents and Congress members from selling meme coins (https://ctmirror.org/?p=1120936) · 2025-05-06 [15] The Block — Rep. Maxine Waters condemns Trump's pardon of Changpeng Zhao (https://www.theblock.co/amp/post/376029/maxine-waters-trump-cz-pardon) · 2025-10 [16] ProPublica — Complaint Accuses Trump's Criminal Attorney of "Blatant" Crypto Conflict in His Role at DOJ (Jan. 23, 2026) (https://www.propublica.org/article/todd-blanche-complaint-conflict-of-interest) · 2026-01-23 [17] The Block — US senators press Deputy AG Blanche on alleged crypto conflicts of interest (https://www.theblock.co/post/387554/blanche-crypto-conflicts-of-interest) · 2026-04-08 [18] The Block — SEC dismisses claims against Justin Sun and Tron Foundation; Rainberry to pay $10M (https://www.theblock.co/post/392509/sec-dismisses-claims-against-justin-sun-and-tron-foundation-bittorrent-developer-rainberry-agrees-to-pay-10m-fine) · 2026-03-05 [19] Cointelegraph — SEC ends case against Justin Sun with $10M settlement (https://cointelegraph.com/news/justin-sun-sec-lawsuit-settles-10-million) · 2026-03 [20] Campaign Legal Center — complaint to DOJ Inspector General regarding Deputy AG Todd Blanche (Jan. 22, 2026, updated) (https://campaignlegal.org/document/clc-complaint-doj-inspector-general-regarding-deputy-ag-todd-blanche) · 2026-01-22 [21] Quiver Quantitative — DOJ Inspector General declined further action on Todd Blanche crypto transactions (https://www.quiverquant.com/news/DOJ+Inspector+General+Declined+Further+Action+on+Todd+Blanche+Crypto+Transactions) · 2026-09 [22] Axios — Senate confirms Todd Blanche as attorney general (https://www.axios.com/2026/08/08/todd-blanche-trump-attorney-general-confirmed) · 2026-08-08 [23] Hawaii News Now / AP — Hirono presses AG nominee Blanche on Trump ties, DOJ 'weaponization' (https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2026/07/16/hirono-presses-ag-nominee-blanche-trump-ties-doj-weaponization/) · 2026-07-16 [24] Sen. Dick Durbin — press release on spotlight forum on Blanche's nomination (July 22, 2026) (https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/dem/releases/durbin-questions-witnesses-during-spotlight-forum-on-president-trumps-nominee-to-be-attorney-general-todd-blanche) · 2026-07-22 [25] U.S. Office of Government Ethics — Todd Blanche ethics agreement (Feb. 10, 2025) (https://extapps2.oge.gov/201/Presiden.nsf/PAS+Index/0E4C3EB0ACE8404785258C30003217F2/$FILE/Blanche%2C%20Todd%20%20finalEA.pdf) · 2025-02-10 [26] U.S. Office of Government Ethics — Todd Blanche periodic transaction report, OGE Form 278-T (signed June 3, 2025) (https://extapps2.oge.gov/201/Presiden.nsf/PAS+Index/9E22E6BED062C62D85258CC5002C7DEA/$FILE/Todd-Blanche-06.03.2025-278T.pdf) · 2025-06-03 [27] U.S. Office of Government Ethics — Todd Blanche nominee financial disclosure, OGE Form 278e (signed June 11, 2026) (https://extapps2.oge.gov/201/Presiden.nsf/PAS+Index/17E740413EA73B3485258E29002D9F37/$FILE/Blanche%2C%20Todd%20%20final278.pdf) · 2026-06-11 [28] Sens. Warren, Hirono, Durbin, Whitehouse, Coons and Blumenthal — letter to Deputy AG Blanche on cryptocurrency conflicts (Jan. 28, 2026) (https://www.hirono.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/20260128ltrfromsenatorstodagrecryptocurrencyconflicts.pdf) · 2026-01-28 Connections Related — 'Flood the zone': overwhelming courts, opposition, and the public In his June 2026 floor speech Murphy argued that a constant stream of self-dealing stories is meant to wear down press and public attention; this entry covers his crypto allegations. Related — Contracts and payments to Trump allies: documented cases and the open question of no-work retainers (2025–2026) Both cover alleged pay-to-play arrangements around Trump allies and family businesses, one through crypto and pardons, the other through contracts. Same actor — DOJ/FBI handling of the Epstein files Todd Blanche, now attorney general, is a named actor in both entries: the 2025 crypto enforcement memo here and the handling of the Epstein files there. Related — Suspiciously timed trades before Trump's Iran and tariff announcements, and active trading in accounts in his name (2025-2026) Murphy's June 2026 speech lists both the crypto matters and the trades around the Iran announcements among his corruption allegations; the two entries share the theme of financial gain around presidential decisions. Related — Trump demanding money from companies and his own government while president Both concern money flowing to Trump or his family businesses from people and companies with interests before the administration. Same actor — Trump v. IRS settlement: the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund and the tax-audit immunity addendum Blanche signed (May-Aug. 2026) Todd Blanche, Trump's former defense lawyer, signed the audit-immunity addendum and, as deputy attorney general, issued the April 2025 crypto enforcement memo while holding crypto.