A weird conspiracy idea claiming that Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is secretly working for the U.S. Federal Reserve has gone viral on social media, prompting a agency denial from Zhao himself.
The rumor, which originated throughout a broadly attended audio chat on X hosted by Chinese language influencer Liangxihgui, advised that CZ’s authorized troubles within the U.S. have been fabricated and that he’s really a covert authorities operative. The dialogue shortly caught consideration, drawing over 100,000 listeners.
Zhao responded instantly on X, calling the story fictional and “entertaining, however fully false.” To set the file straight, he confirmed he did spend 4 months in a U.S. jail from Could to September 2024 over anti-money laundering violations, and shared a few of his experiences following his launch. Nevertheless, on the time of writing, the tweet from CZ appears to be deleted.
This wasn’t the primary time CZ needed to confront on-line rumors. Earlier, he pushed again in opposition to a Wall Avenue Journal report alleging he collaborated with the U.S. Justice Division to undermine Justin Solar. Zhao dismissed the article as a part of a smear marketing campaign and accused sure media retailers of taking advantage of false narratives. Solar additionally denied any information of such claims and voiced assist for Zhao.
CZ identified that many of those rumors look like makes an attempt by influencers to spice up engagement, including with some humor that if he really labored for the Fed, Bitcoin may be at file highs by now.
Since stepping down as Binance CEO, Zhao has turned his consideration to new ventures. He’s now main YZi Labs, previously Binance Labs, and persevering with to develop Giggle Academy—an academic challenge aimed toward kids, which formally launched its app in late 2024. Zhao has mentioned his focus going ahead might be on increasing this initiative.
