Statue of Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao Coming to Washington DC After Trump Pardon

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao will be recognized in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday with a 14-foot-tall statue, crypto fans claim. The physical tribute follows a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump last week.

An organizer who goes by Nick Zee told Decrypt that the gold-painted statue will feature Zhao’s iconic gesture, with crypto’s richest man flashing four fingers up on one hand—in reference to his 2023 goal of ignoring fear, uncertainty and doubt (aka “FUD”) amid heightened regulatory scrutiny.

The statue will be displayed for a handful of hours before it is offered to Zhao as a gift, or auctioned off to the benefit of Giggle Academy, Zee said. The nonprofit was established by Zhao last year, after he pleaded guilty to a criminal charge related to anti-money laundering violations, as part of a $4.3 billion settlement between him, the exchange, and U.S. law officials.

“CZ is iconic,” Zee said, referring to Zhao by his initials. “He’s an OG.”

An anonymous collective, composed of four people, put up around $50,000 to fund the initiative, Zee said. And it took around four weeks for the statue to be created using a CNC printing machine, which milled the statue from dense foam blocks, Zee added. The team has been sharing videos of the statue being polished and transported ahead of its purported public debut.

The initiative is unrelated to other attempts at honoring influential crypto figures in D.C. in recent weeks. In the same spot that the statue of Zhao is expected to be shown outside the U.S. Capitol, a separate group erected a gold statue of Trump clutching a Bitcoin last month.

There is a meme coin associated with the initiative, which was issued on BNB Chain under the ticker CZSTATUE, a spokesperson for the statue’s creators told Decrypt. It has a market cap of $577,000, as of this writing.

Zee said that the statue was inspired by “fake attacks” against Zhao, as well as a recent increase in the price of BNB, which Binance’s competitors have recently moved to support. The pardon, Zee said, was “like the cherry on the cake.”

On Monday, BNB changed hands around $1,137, roughly flat over the past day, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. The token’s price has increased 18% over the past month, repeatedly setting record highs in recent weeks.

Zhao’s exchange has links to Trump-backed World Liberty Financial. The decentralized finance project’s USD1 stablecoin was tapped for a $2 billion investment in Binance from Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund MGX earlier this year.

Although some celebrated Zhao’s pardon, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was among critics that described the president’s move as indicative of corruption  on Thursday.

“First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge. Then he boosted one of Donald Trump’s crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon,” she said in a statement shared with Decrypt. “Today, Donald Trump did his part and pardoned him.”