Connecticut senator says Binance ‘anointed’ President Trump’s crypto trading

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy slams crypto exchanges Binance He is accused of helping facilitate corrupt transactions in exchange for a presidential pardon for billionaire founder Changpeng “CZ” Chao.

“We are not stupid. Your company launched President Trump’s corrupt cryptocurrency,” Sen. Murphy tweeted on Friday. “You fueled the wheels of the UAE’s massively corrupt ‘trade secrets for cash’ deal.”

“You basically did whatever fraudulent thing Trump asked you to do, and lo and behold, your billionaire owner gets pardoned! Come on,” Murphy wrote, referring directly to the cryptocurrency exchange.

The comments came a week after the White House confirmed that President Donald Trump had pardoned CZ, who will serve four months in federal prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws.

The pardon, which the administration touted as ending the “Biden administration’s crypto war,” has caused political turmoil in Washington.

“Full-time corruption machine”

Murphy has posted a series of critical tweets since his pardon, and the attacks intensified after Binance US announced on Tuesday that it would list USD1. stable coin Published by President Trump’s World Liberty Financial Project.

“One week after President Trump pardoned the owner of Binance (for an alarming series of crimes related to financing terrorists and sex offenders), Binance began promoting the Trump cryptocurrency,” Murphy tweeted. “The White House is a full-time, 24/7 corruption machine.”

In response, Binance US tweeted that it conducted “comprehensive due diligence” before listing, pointed out that USD1 is already traded on more than 20 exchanges, and criticized Murphy’s claims as an unfair politicization of its day-to-day operations.

Kadan Stadelmann, Chief Technology Officer of Komodo Platform, said: decryption The market has clearly adopted WLFI, which is listed on major exchanges in addition to Binance.US, which Murphy said is “trying to protect an unstable system that has lost control of its funds and financial oversight.”

“Washington, D.C., resembles a melodrama where Democrats and Republicans lobby accusations of corruption even though each other is guilty,” Stadelman said.

“Why isn’t Mr. Murphy rallying against the AML failures of big banks? Because what he’s doing is political opportunism. All of these are reasons for DeFi,” he added.

Democrats condemn CZ pardon

Democrats also point to Binance’s growing ties to Trump’s crypto companies, particularly the $2 billion MGX investment for $1 that generates annual profits of $60 million to $80 million for World Liberty Financial and $1 billion for the Trump family.

Ranking Member Maxine Waters said Trump’s pardon was a “surprising but unsurprising reflection of his presidency,” and Congressman Ro Khanna responded by announcing a bill that would ban elected officials from owning or creating cryptocurrencies.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) sponsored a resolution condemning the pardon, saying Mr. Trump’s decision followed “months of close business relations” with Mr. Zhao and calling on Congress to stop “such blatant corruption and influence-grabbing.”