In China's WeChat social media platform, a bogus news story claiming that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) was "shot" by government officials went viral.
CZ recently refuted a rumor that had circulated widely on a Chinese chat forum in a tweet.
In response to the false rumors that circulated on the WeChat messaging app in China, CZ claimed that he had been "shot" by the FBI, highlighting Binance's positive working relationship with them.
CZ kept things lighthearted when presented with the peculiar claim that he had been shot by US law enforcement, saying that the Binance team gets along well with the FBI and punctuating his statement with a "shrug" emoji.
The CEO of Binance tweeted a photo-shopped image of The New York Times' Chinese Twitter account.
Someone photoshoped this, and it got spread widely on WeChat in china. It says I got shot by the FBI, whom our team work with closely… 🤷♂️ 4. pic.twitter.com/2Iz7c1QgA8
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) March 3, 2023
Despite having a poor start to 2023, CZ's New Year's resolution to disregard "FUD, fake news, attacks, and so on" has failed miserably.
CZ made a joke about anyone who purchased the fake story and then sold their cryptocurrency in response to another Twitter user. The user highlighted the phrase "Changpeng Zhao was shot dead by the FBI" in a screenshot.
鹏哥，听说你被FBI给biu～biu了？如果是真的你就点点头给点暗示😅@cz_binance @sisibinance pic.twitter.com/yI8Plzq0Av
— Jimi (@Jimi_Lee99999) March 3, 2023
Binance.US has engaged former FBI agent BJ Kang to head a team of investigators tasked with stopping illegal activity on the site.
After working with the FBI for more than 20 years, most recently as a member of the cybercrime unit in the Washington field office, BJ Kang decided to leave the organization for a cryptocurrency exchange.
Before to it, on March 1, three US senators—Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Roger Marshall—sent a letter to CZ and Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder requesting more information about Binance's financials.
