CZ Threatens to Sue Senator Warren for Defamation Claims

Warren claimed that CZ bribed Donald Trump for a pardon and pleaded guilty to money laundering—claims his legal team says are false. The dispute follows Trump’s controversial pardon of Zhao, which some critics linked to a $2 billion Binance investment tied to Trump’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial. At the same time, Zhao warned investors not to buy a new “CZ Statue” meme coin that was launched in his likeness, calling it a cash grab. 

CZ Prepares to Sue Warren

Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is reportedly preparing to file a libel lawsuit against US Senator Elizabeth Warren over what his legal team claims are false and defamatory remarks linking him to bribery and corruption surrounding his recent presidential pardon by Donald Trump.

According to a report from the New York Post, Zhao’s attorney, Teresa Goody Guillén of Baker & Hostetler, confirmed that the former Binance chief intends to pursue legal action unless Warren retracts statements that were made in an Oct. 23 post on X. In the post, the Massachusetts senator alleged that Zhao “pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge” and suggested that he bribed Trump in exchange for clemency. The post is still live, but now includes some reader-added context, which caused widespread backlash in both political and crypto circles.

Zhao’s legal team maintains that Warren’s claims are inaccurate and damaging. In November of 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to one count of failing to maintain an adequate Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program at Binance. This is a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, but not money laundering itself. \He served a four-month prison sentence earlier in 2024. 

Goody Guillén explained that Zhao “will not remain silent while a United States Senator seemingly misuses the office to repeatedly publish defamatory statements that impugn his reputation,” and said that he is demanding an immediate retraction both on social media and in the official congressional resolution that allegedly references the same claims.

The controversy follows Trump’s unexpected decision to pardon Zhao on Oct. 23, which quickly drew sharp criticism from lawmakers. Some accused the president of favoring Zhao after an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm reportedly injected $2 billion into Binance using the USD1 stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial — a crypto venture tied to Trump’s family. Warren later claimed that Zhao “financed President Trump’s stablecoin,” calling the situation “corruption.”

X post from CZ

Zhao, however, denied the allegations by saying Warren “can’t get her facts right.” This isn’t the first time CZ took legal action against media outlets over defamation. In 2022, he threatened to sue Bloomberg Businessweek over a Chinese-language report calling Binance a Ponzi scheme, which was later retracted with an apology and a charitable settlement.

CZ Warns Against New Meme Coin

CZ currently has his hands quite full trying to defend his honor. He recently warned crypto investors against buying a new meme coin that was created to exploit his name and image, warning that such projects often pose serious financial risks. The warning came after a fan page unveiled a golden statue of Zhao and announced plans to send it to him, which quickly inspired the launch of a so-called CZ-themed “golden statue” token.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Zhao said that while he appreciated the gesture, the existence of a token tied to it suggested that the creators were trying to profit from his reputation rather than contribute anything meaningful to the blockchain ecosystem. “While I want to appreciate the gesture, the fact that there is a meme coin associated with this means the creator probably just wanted to make a quick buck off an interaction from me,” Zhao wrote. “This is something I don’t appreciate. Don’t buy the meme.”

CZ statue

His warning definitely sent a message to investors as the token, known as CZ STATUE (CZ STATUE), lost 86% of its value within hours of launch after briefly hitting a market cap of about $5.1 million, according to data from Nansen. The analytics firm also flagged the token’s distribution as a potential red flag, as more than 15% of the supply was held by a newly created wallet—an indicator of possible insider activity and poor transparency.

Many of these kinds of tokens have no technical substance or long-term purpose beyond social hype, making them highly volatile and often short-lived. Earlier this month, Binance Smart Chain meme coins briefly created new crypto millionaires during a speculative frenzy that ended with a record $19 billion liquidation event, wiping out much of the market’s short-term gains. In one example, a trader turned $3,000 into $2 million after a previous X post from Zhao boosted a BNB-based meme coin—which perfectly proves how sentiment can drive massive but unsustainable profits in meme coins.