Changpeng Zhao remains Binance’s majority shareholder and a powerful figure in crypto despite serving four months in U.S. prison and later receiving a presidential pardon. A new New York Times profile sheds light on his account of Binance’s role in FTX’s collapse, a $2 billion investment involving Emirati fund MGX and Trump-linked World Liberty Financial, and the political scrutiny surrounding those relationships.
Zhao Denies Intending to Bring Down FTX
In November 2022, after CoinDesk raised questions about FTX’s finances, Zhao announced that Binance would sell roughly $500 million in FTT tokens. Customers rushed to withdraw funds from FTX.
Binance then announced a proposed acquisition of the exchange, then abandoned it the following day. FTX collapsed after its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, misappropriated $8 billion in customer funds. He later received a 25-year prison sentence for fraud.
