Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, popularly known as CZ, has publicly pushed back against what he called “another hit piece” by The Wall Street Journal, claiming the publication distorted facts and operated with negative intentions.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), CZ criticized WSJ for abandoning journalism in favor of what he referred to as Cunningham’s Law, quoting the idea that “the best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.”
“This is NOT how journalism should work,” CZ wrote. He added that a few days prior, WSJ had sent a list of questions through his PR team that were riddled with “wrong and negative assumptions.”
According to CZ, when Binance pointed out there were “numerous inaccuracies and unfounded inferences,” WSJ responded by asking for specific corrections. But CZ said the problem wasn’t a few factual errors—it was the entire story.
“When you make up a story with negative intentions to begin with, there is no way to fix the ‘inaccuracies.’ It’s the entire story,” he wrote.
CZ shared snippets from WSJ’s questions, one of which read:
“We understand that CZ has been serving as effectively a fixer for Zach Witkoff and the WLF team in their foreign travels… In recent months, CZ has met with government officials from Pakistan, Malaysia and Kyrgyzstan… We understand that CZ then connected Mr Saqib with the World Liberty Financial team, and a week later after his visit, World Liberty named Mr Saqib an adviser. On April 26, the WLF team arrived in Pakistan to sign a MoU with the government.”
According to CZ, WSJ then published the following line in their report:
“Helping facilitate some introductions for World Liberty’s foreign travels is Changpeng Zhao, founder of the crypto exchange Binance… World Liberty’s spokesman said Zhao and Zach Witkoff are friends but that Zhao doesn’t act as a fixer.”
To this, CZ responded, “Fact: I am not a fixer for anyone. I did NOT ‘connect Mr. Saqib with the WLF team.’ They had known each other way back, whereas I only met with Mr. Saqib for the first time in Pakistan. I did NOT make any ‘introductions for World Liberty’s foreign travels.’”
He ended his statement by suggesting a broader motive behind the report:
“WSJ is just the mouthpiece. There are forces in the US that want to hinder efforts in making the US the capital of crypto. They want to attack crypto, global crypto leaders, and the pro-crypto administration.”
