Binance.US Lists Trump's USD1 Stablecoin Days After Presidential Pardon of Binance Founder

Binance.US added support for World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin on October 29, 2025, just six days after President Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ). The timing triggered immediate accusations of corruption from Senator Chris Murphy, who alleged the listing represented ‘payback’ for the presidential pardon. The USD1 stablecoin, issued by the Trump family’s crypto venture World Liberty Financial, had a market capitalization of $2.97 billion and ranked as the sixth-largest stablecoin globally at the time of listing.

Binance.US defended the listing as routine, stating that USD1 had been approved by its listing committee ‘some time ago’ through ‘ordinary course of business’ and noting that over 20 U.S. exchanges including Coinbase, Robinhood, and Kraken already listed the stablecoin. However, the optics remained problematic: the listing came amid a broader pattern of Binance providing crucial support to Trump family crypto ventures. The global Binance exchange had already listed USD1 in May 2025, and MGX (an Emirati-backed fund) had committed $2 billion to invest in Binance using the USD1 stablecoin.

The controversy underscores the transactional nature of the Trump administration’s crypto policy: Binance had paid lobbyist Charles McDowell (a friend of Donald Trump Jr.) $450,000 in September for lobbying services including seeking ’executive relief,’ which materialized as the CZ pardon in October. The sequence of events—lobbying payments, presidential pardon, strategic stablecoin listing—revealed a clear pay-to-play pattern where business partners of the Trump family received favorable regulatory and legal treatment.