Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy has accused crypto exchange Binance of serving to facilitate plod affords in exchange for a presidential pardon of its billionaire founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
“We’re not dreary. Your company launched Trump’s plod crypto coin,” Senator Murphy tweeted Friday. “You greased the wheels of the massively plod UAE ‘alternate secrets for money’ deal.”
“You customarily did whatever zigzag thing Trump asked. And then, voila – your billionaire owner will get a pardon! C’mon,” Murphy wrote, instantly addressing the crypto exchange.
We’re not dreary. Your company launched Trump’s plod crypto coin. You greased the wheels of the massively plod UAE “alternate secrets for money” deal. You customarily did whatever zigzag thing Trump asked.
And then, voila – your billionaire owner will get a pardon!
C’mon. https://t.co/NQk7aWMwmn
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 31, 2025
The comments got here per week after the White Rental confirmed President Donald Trump had pardoned CZ, who served four months in federal penal complex in 2024 after pleading responsible to violating U.S. anti–money laundering felony pointers.
The pardon, touted by the administration as ending the “Biden Administration’s battle on crypto,” has brought on a political uproar in Washington.
‘Tubby-time corruption machine’
Murphy has posted a chain of excessive tweets since the pardon, with the assaults ramping up after Binance US announced on Tuesday that it might possibly maybe maybe list USD1, a stablecoin issued by Trump’s World Liberty Financial accomplishing.
“One week after Trump pardoned Binance’s owner (for a elegant array of crimes connected to terrorist and intercourse predator financing), Binance begins promoting Trump crypto,” Murphy tweeted. “The White Rental is a stout-time, 24/7 corruption machine.”
In response, Binance US tweeted that it conducts “comprehensive due diligence” earlier than listings, noting USD1 already trades on over 20 exchanges, and called Murphy’s claims an unfair politicization of routine alternate.
Expensive Senator,
We conduct comprehensive due diligence and upright overview earlier than list any asset on @BinanceUS, whether it’s a stablecoin, a brand contemporary ecosystem accomplishing, or a meme token.
No longer handiest are USD1 and WLFI already listed on 20+ important exchanges, including U.S. platforms… https://t.co/6HEM9EprVm
— Binance.US 🇺🇸 (@BinanceUS) October 29, 2025
Kadan Stadelmann, Chief Know-how Officer at Komodo Platform, instructed Decrypt that Murphy is “attempting to defend a flailing gadget shedding its grip on money and monetary surveillance,” because the market has clearly adopted WLFI, with its list on important exchanges to boot to Binance.US.
“Washington D.C. is equivalent to a cleaning soap opera where Democrats and Republicans foyer accusations at every thoroughly different of corruption, when every are responsible,” Stadelmann acknowledged.
“Why doesn’t Murphy rally in opposition to AML mess ups at huge banks? On account of what he’s doing is political opportunism. All of that is the motive of DeFi,” he added.
Democrats denounce CZ pardon
Democrats salvage additionally pointed to Binance’s rising ties to Trump’s crypto companies, particularly a $2 billion MGX funding in USD1 that nets $60–80 million yearly for World Liberty Financial and $1 billion for the Trump household.
Ranking Member Maxine Waters called Trump’s pardon “an appalling but unsurprising reflection of his presidency,” while Representative Ro Khanna replied by asserting laws to ban elected officials from proudly owning or constructing cryptocurrencies.
Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) salvage backed a call condemning the pardon, writing that Trump’s decision adopted “months of an increasingly intertwined alternate relationship” with Zhao and urging Congress to close “such blatant corruption and affect-peddling.”
