A Trump family representative held talks to buy a stake in Binance’s U.S. arm, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Thursday.
The stake could have been acquired through Trump-family backed crypto project World Liberty Financial, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Steve Witkoff, a friend of the U.S. president, was involved in the deal talks, the report added. Witkoff and his family founded World Liberty Financial two months before Trump was elected President in November.
The talks started last year after Binance reached out to Trump’s allies offering to reach a deal with the family so as to bring the crypto exchange back to the U.S.
BNB, the native cryptocurrency of the Binance linked BNB Chain, jumped as much as 5% on the news, surpassing $600 for the first time in a week.
A representative for Binance.US declined to comment on the report.
The exchange just recently saw its U.S. dollar fiat services restored after it lost the ability to deposit and withdraw USD under the Biden Administration.
Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler had previously branded Binance.US “a cauldron of fraud” and tried everything in his power to crack down on the exchange. As a result, the company lost thousands of customers and was forced to lay off 70% of its staff after losing billions of dollars.
Binance also took its institutional investment on Wednesday as Abu-Dhabi based investment firm MGX put $2 billion in the exchange.
UPDATE (March 11, 13:40 UTC): Adds BNB movement and Binance’s comment.
UPDATE (March 11, 13:55 UTC): Adds background information on Binance.US’ struggles in the U.S. market.
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