Anonymous crypto donors and fans said they pooled funds on Tuesday to recognize Binance founder Changpeng Zhao with a 14-foot-tall statue in Washington, D.C. The physical monument comes after U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned CZ last week.
An organizer named Nick Zee revealed that the gold-painted statue will feature Zhao’s iconic gesture. The statue will also feature CZ flashing four fingers up on one hand, which stands for his 2023 goal of ignoring fear, uncertainty, and doubt amid heightened regulatory scrutiny.
Anonymous donors contribute $50K for the statue
Zee also confirmed that the statue will first be displayed for a few hours before it is presented to Zhao as a gift or auctioned off to benefit CZ’s nonprofit, Giggle Academy. Zhao established Giggle Academy last year after pleading guilty to a criminal charge related to anti-money laundering violations. The nonprofit was also established as part of a $4.3 billion settlement between CZ, Binance, and U.S. law officials.
Zee revealed that anonymous donors, comprising four individuals, came together and contributed approximately $50,000 to fund the initiative. He also confirmed that the statue took four weeks to be created using a CNC printing machine, which milled the statue from dense foam blocks. The CZ statue team has been updating the public with videos showing the statue being polished and transported ahead of its expected public debut.
The initiative follows similar attempts to erect statues honoring influential crypto figures in D.C in recent weeks. A separate group erected a gold statue of Trump clutching a Bitcoin last month in the same spot that the statue of Zhao is expected to be debuted outside Washington.
One of the spokespersons revealed that BNB Chain also issued a memecoin associated with the initiative under the ticker CZSTATUE. At the time of publication, the token has a market cap of around $577,000.
Zee disclosed that the statue was inspired by fake attacks against Binance’s founder, as well as the recent surge in BNB’s price, which has recently garnered support from the exchange’s competitors. Zee argued that the pardon was like the cherry on the cake.
At the time of publication, BNB is currently trading at around $1,137, down by roughly 1% over the past day. BNB has also surged by more than 18% over the past 30 days, setting record highs repeatedly in recent weeks.
Binance has previously been linked to the Trump family-backed crypto project, World Liberty Financial. Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund, MGX, tapped the project’s USD1 stablecoin initiative for a $2 billion investment in Binance earlier this year.
Trump pardons Changpeng Zhao
Zhao was indicted in 2024 and spent four months at a minimum security prison in Lompoc, California. He also resigned his position as Binance’s CEO in 2023 as part of a plea bargain in his case. CZ pleaded guilty to breaching U.S. laws against money laundering at the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
White House Press Secretary Karolike Levitt acknowledged that Trump exercised his constitutional authority by pardoning Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration. She also disclosed that the Biden Administration pursued CZ despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims, but only in their desire to punish the cryptocurrency sector. Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Zhao’s pardon on Thursday, describing the President’s move as indicative of corruption.
Levitt also revealed that the Biden Administration sought to imprison the former Binance CEO for three years, calling the sentence outside sentencing guidelines, which even the judge agreed he’d never heard of in his 30-year career. She acknowledged that the actions by the previous administration severely damaged the U.S.’s reputation as a global leader in technology and innovation.
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