A Trump family representative held conversations to buy a share in Binance’s US arm, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Thursday.

The stake could have been acquired through the Trump family supported the Crypto Project World Liberty Financial, the report said, referring to people who are familiar with the case.

Steve Witkoff, a friend of the US president, was involved in the agreements, the report added. Witkoff and his family founded World Liberty Financial two months before Trump was elected president in November.

Negotiations started last year after Binance reached out to Trump’s allies offering to reach an appointment with the family to bring the crypto exchange back to the United States

BNB, the native cryptocurrency of Binance Linked BNB chain, jumped as much as 5% on the news and surpassed $ 600 for the first time in a week.

A representative of Binance.us refused to comment on the report. However, Binance CEO Changpen “CZ” Zhao said in a post of X that the journal “got the facts wrong.”

“I haven’t had any discussions about a Binance USA treating … Yes, someone,” CZ wrote. WSJ did not report that CZ was involved in the negotiations, but rather that Binance leaders pursued it.

WSJ had also reported that CZ asked President Trump for a pardon. CZ denied that he entered into an agreement but did not explicitly said he had not asked for a pardon.

“No Felon Would Mind A Pardon, Especially Being the Only One In Us History Who Was Ever Sentenced To Prison For A Single Bsa Charge. Feels Like The Article Is Motivated As An Attack On The President and Crypto, And The Residual Forces of the” War On Crypto “from the Last Administration Are Still to Work. Make Crypto Great Everywhere, US and The Rest of the World.

The exchange recently saw its US dollar -fiat services that were restored after it lost the opportunity to deposit and withdraw the USD during the Biden -administration.

Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) President Gary Gensler had previously labeled Binance.us “a boiler of fraud” and tried everything he could to crack down on the exchange. As a result, the company lost thousands of customers and was forced to dismiss 70% of its staff after losing billions of dollars.

Binance also took its institutional investments on Wednesday when Abu-Dhabi-based investment company MGX put $ 2 billion in the stock exchange.

Update (March 11, 13:40 UTC): Adds BNB movement and Binance’s comment.

Update (March 11, 13:55 UTC): Adds background information about Binance.us’ matches in the US market.

Update (March 11, 14:50 UTC): Adds Binance CEO Changpen Zhao’s Reply to the report.