- Steven McWhirter highlighted 'acceleration' of Trump era.
- Binance was in talks with Trumps about stake, paper reported.
- The exchange withdrew from US following 2023 guilty plea.
Is Binance scaling back up in the US?
It’s an intriguing question given the fact that Binance, the world’s top crypto exchange, largely decamped from the US in 2023 in connection with violating banking law and paying a $4.3 billion penalty.
And yet the crypto world is abuzz with speculation Binance may be angling for a full-scale return given the relaxed regulatory climate under the Trump administration.
DL News caught up with Steven McWhirter, Binance’s global policy lead, to talk about the possibility.
“It’s far too early for any discussions of whether we should be in or out of the US,” McWhirter said in an interview on Wednesday.
‘The pace of acceleration and the movement is really impressive.’
— Steven McWhirter, Binance
The idea Binance may be entertaining such a move got a lift on March 13 when The Wall Street Journal reported that members of President Donald Trump‘s family have been in talks with Binance executives about potentially acquiring a stake in the crypto exchange.
The paper also reported that the parties discussed a presidential pardon for Changpeng Zhao, the exchange’s co-founder and former CEO.
Zhao, known as CZ, pleaded guilty to violating US banking law at the same time as Binance and was sentenced to a four-month prison term.
Zhao denied he was seeking a deal that would permit him to reenter the US financial sector. “I have had no discussions of a Binance US deal with… well, anyone,” he said in a post on X.
For his part, McWhirter said: “These are not things I am aware of at all.”
Game changer
What McWhirter, a former senior official at the UK Financial Conduct Authority, does know is that the new policy approach in Washington is a game changer for crypto.
Under Trump, regulators have scotched the crackdown on Coinbase, Ripple, Binance, and other top players.
The administration has formed a Bitcoin strategic reserve, and Congress is shepherding legislation that may bring long-desired “regulatory clarity,” as industry insiders put it, to stablecoins.
“This is only mid-March, but the pace of acceleration and the movement is really impressive,” said McWhirtner.
“It’s been incredibly busy,” he continued. “Since Trump came in, there has been a very positive change in direction, and that’s had a trickle down effect.”
Still, Binance has yet to address one of the biggest questions about its future — where will the company, which executes about $20 billion in daily trading volume, be based?
“No, there’s nothing,” McWhirter said. “But the business has been going through a very careful evaluation process in terms of where it will locate its HQ.”
Liam Kelly is a Berlin-based reporter for DL News. Got a tip? Email him at liam@dlnews.com.