Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has interacted with or followed at least four sketchy crypto accounts on X, one of which faked the sum they received from Binance as part of its $400 million recovery plan.
Zhao was caught reposting an engagement farming post by “@Cryptobullmaker” that misleadingly claimed Binance had paid them $30,000.
It thanked Binance and Zhao for the funds and said, “still people will fud,” an acronym for fear, uncertainty and doubt that Zhao often references when faced with criticism.
Binance created the recovery fund to help users affected by October’s $600 billion crypto crash. The exchange promised to pay some users a maximum of $6,000, five times less than the amount Cryptobullmaker was claiming.
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As such, the post was flagged by X’s community note system, which pointed out the discrepancy between the account’s claimed refund and Binance’s policy.
The former Binance head was also caught by crypto sleuth ZachXBT following a crypto scammer who has reportedly changed their name at least 31 times.
The scammer account later blocked ZachXBT, and Zhao thanked the researcher for the heads up.
‘A total lack of honor’
The fake Binance funding post peeved CEO of peer-to-peer crypto trading platform NoOnes, Ray Youssef, who claimed that there’s a “total lack of honor” from Zhao and Binance.
“I gave him my @builtwithbtc team for 6 months. His team lead them in circle and did not donate a single satoshi. I was disgusted,” said Youssef.
Before NoOnes, Youssef was the CEO of Paxful and supported the “Built With Bitcoin Foundation,” an initiative that donated funds to help build schools.
He claims that Zhao approached Paxful with a deal that would see it become an onramp for Binance.
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He believed Zhao wanted to buy Paxful, and thought that since he is “super rich,” he would be able to spare a “few million” to help build some schools.
He said, “I had already built 12 and I wanted us to build a 100 together.”
However, after learning he didn’t donate “a single satoshi,” he said, “I refused his offer to buy Paxful and cancelled the deal.”
Zhao is bigging up the ‘worst people in crypto’
Zhao has also been called out by crypto investigator Dethective for amplifying some of the “worst people in crypto.”
He inadvertently helped a “known grifter” pump the price of a memecoin that they’d bought minutes earlier. All it took was asking on X if the token was real and the price went skyward.
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The crypto trader was flagged by ZachXBT as having a history of grifting and was exposed for being behind a rug pull in 2023.
Zhao was also called out for engaging with another account that repeatedly shills “$80K mcap scams every day.”
This crypto user, who screenshotted Zhao’s approval, noted, “Idk if CZ even knows about it but these scammers use ‘Followed by @cz_binance’ accounts to launch memecoins and rug ppl.”
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Source: https://protos.com/changpeng-zhao-accused-of-boosting-fraudsters-on-x/