Zhao Denies WSJ’s WLFI Connections, Calls Article Manipulative
Date: 2025-05-26 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: BUSINESS
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has denied information published in The Wall Street Journal that he played a key role in the international expansion of World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a project linked to the family of US President Donald Trump.
According to journalists, Zhao used his trips to Pakistan, Malaysia, and Kyrgyzstan to help WLFI establish contacts with local officials. In particular, they were talking about the alleged acquaintance of the head of the Pakistan Crypto Council Bilal bin Saqib with representatives of WLFI, which later led to his appointment as an adviser to the company and an agreement with the country's government.
However, Zhao himself claims that this is not true. According to him, he never acted as an intermediary or arranged a meeting between Saqib and WLFI. Moreover, he noted that the official and the project representatives knew each other long before his arrival in the region.
The entrepreneur also sharply criticized the publication's approach, emphasizing that the material is biased and deliberately distorts the facts. In his opinion, the article was written with a predetermined negative goal, and not out of a desire to convey the truth. "When you deliberately create a false narrative, no amount of 'error correction' will help," Zhao said.
He also compared the actions of the WSJ to the "Cunningham Law", according to which the best way to get the right information on the Internet is to publish deliberately false information. Such an approach, according to him, is unacceptable in professional journalism.
In addition, Zhao suggested that there are forces in the United States interested in discrediting the crypto industry, and they could be behind the publication of such materials. He called the article part of an anti-cryptocurrency campaign and a tool of pressure.
Zhao's position was supported by WLFI itself. The company's co-founder Zach Folkman called the publication in the WSJ "a slanderous attack", accusing the publication of spreading fabrications and politically motivated disinformation. He emphasized that the article is an attempt to present speculation as journalistic material.
Recall that according to Reuters, in January 2025, Donald Trump's family increased control over WLFI, receiving 75% of the profits and 60% of the platform's operations after the launch of the main product. At the same time, the president himself is mentioned in the documents as the "chief crypto advocate", and his sons are designated as ambassadors of the Web3 direction.
Earlier in March, the WSJ and Bloomberg also reported on a possible deal for WLFI to acquire a stake in Binance's US division. These reports were later denied by both Zhao and the company.
