Binance.US Just Valued Itself at $1B, Raising $100M — And Trump's Crypto Arm Passed
World Liberty Financial, the Trump-affiliated crypto outfit with every reason to back a resurgent Binance.US, was briefed on the deal — and walked away.
That detail, buried inside a Bloomberg report on Binance.US's $100 million fundraising push at a $1 billion valuation, is the most important thing happening in U.S. crypto right now. Not because the raise is massive. But because of who decided to sit it out.
The Raise Itself Is Already a Statement
Binance.US has spent the last two years in regulatory purgatory. The SEC came after it. The CFTC came after it. Parent company Binance paid a $4.3 billion settlement to the DOJ and watched its founder Changpeng Zhao walk into federal custody. The U.S. operation bled users, volume, and credibility in real time.
Now it wants $100 million and a $1 billion price tag on the whole thing. That is not a small ask for a platform that, at its lowest point, looked like it might not survive 2024.
The fact that institutional money is even in the room for this conversation says something real about how fast the regulatory mood in the U.S. has shifted under a pro-crypto administration. A year ago, this raise would have been dead on arrival.
But World Liberty Financial Said No
This is where it gets interesting. World Liberty Financial, which carries the Trump brand and has been aggressively positioning itself as the connective tissue between the new Washington and the crypto industry, was made aware of the fundraising, according to Bloomberg. It is not participating.
That is not a nothing. When the most politically connected crypto entity in America — one that has been vocal about its ambitions and its deal flow — passes on a Binance.US raise happening in the most favorable regulatory environment in years, you have to ask why.
Possible reads: the valuation is too rich for the fundamentals. The legal tail risk is still too long. Or there are political optics around the Binance name that even this administration doesn't want to touch directly.
Any of those explanations should give serious investors pause.
What to Watch
If Binance.US closes this round at or near the $1 billion valuation, it signals that institutional capital has fully priced in regulatory rehabilitation for the exchange. That would be a meaningful unlock for the broader U.S. crypto market.
If the raise struggles, or prices down, the World Liberty pass starts to look prescient.
Watch who actually writes the check. The names on the cap table will tell you everything about whether this is a real recovery or a very expensive press release.