Valuetainment - May 14, 2026


＂They Wanted To Protect SBF＂ - The $100M Democrat Payoff That Protected SBF & DESTROYED CZ


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

193.97

Word count

1,751

Sentence count

120

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Ronster chats with Nir Eyal, CEO of Binance, about his recent pardon from the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco, and what it means for the future of the company.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 To get the context of dates right, so when do you go away?
00:00:03.620 When do you get the pardon?
00:00:05.500 So I arrived in the U.S. November 21st, 2023,
00:00:11.440 and then I was supposed to be sentenced going through the court.
00:00:14.620 I was sentenced on April 30th, 2024.
00:00:18.660 I went to, I think I self-surrendered to prison on May 30th, 2024.
00:00:25.280 I got out of prison on September 27th, 2024,
00:00:30.000 So, I did four months there.
00:00:32.220 And then I think in October 21st, 2025, I got the presidential pardon.
00:00:38.820 So, yeah.
00:00:39.480 So, a year later.
00:00:40.420 A year later.
00:00:41.280 But what is the big deal about getting a pardon, though, a year later?
00:00:44.040 Like, what does it do?
00:00:44.800 What benefit?
00:00:45.540 You're not a U.S. citizen. 1.00
00:00:46.640 You don't live here.
00:00:47.960 Who cares about getting a pardon?
00:00:49.260 Why was that such a big deal?
00:00:50.360 It's a big deal.
00:00:51.120 It's a big deal.
00:00:52.260 Without a pardon, I'm labeled as a felon.
00:00:54.760 So, I have a criminal record, right?
00:00:56.340 And then, especially in my industry, where we deal with finances,
00:01:00.280 we have to get financial licenses,
00:01:02.100 my ability to what they call the fit and proper as a UBO,
00:01:05.700 ultimate beneficiary owner, is significantly impacted.
00:01:09.780 That means I cannot be a shareholder of many of our businesses.
00:01:14.240 Or we will limit our ability to get licenses.
00:01:17.180 This is not just in the U.S.
00:01:18.220 This is global.
00:01:19.980 And in the U.S. even more.
00:01:21.880 After the pardon, this goes away.
00:01:24.660 It's a full, unconditional pardon.
00:01:27.220 And yeah, so the pardon is the big deal.
00:01:30.780 With a pardon, we don't get the fines back,
00:01:33.760 but still it's a big deal that we get our name cleared.
00:01:37.200 Got it.
00:01:37.680 So it helps you out for licensing
00:01:39.840 and the way U.S. qualifies you,
00:01:43.160 the rest of the world will pay attention to it.
00:01:44.880 So it kind of opens the market up for you
00:01:46.500 that if you choose to get back into business, you can.
00:01:49.020 Yes, yes.
00:01:50.580 Okay, but you have to step down as the CEO of Binance.
00:01:54.660 Yes, when I step, yes, that's true.
00:01:58.700 What can you do?
00:02:00.000 What can you not do with Binance?
00:02:02.180 I actually have a legal opinion from my lawyers,
00:02:04.740 but basically, largely, my shareholder rights are intact.
00:02:09.400 But now, given the pardon, I believe I have a lot more freedom.
00:02:12.900 But I still don't run Binance.
00:02:16.880 And also, the company still have two monitors on them, etc.
00:02:21.880 So there's still some limitations.
00:02:23.680 But largely, nowadays, I actually don't really want to run Binance either.
00:02:30.340 After getting the pardon, could you now go back and be the CEO of Binance, or you couldn't do it legally?
00:02:37.480 I think there's still some restrictions around that.
00:02:39.660 Is it permanent, or is there a time on it?
00:02:43.080 I actually need to check with the lawyers.
00:02:46.700 Nothing is really permanent, in my opinion.
00:02:49.720 But I believe that there's still some restrictions today.
00:02:53.260 So in five years, would it be an impossible thing that we get news that says CZ makes a comeback and he's the CEO of Binance?
00:03:03.020 Is there a possibility that that could happen?
00:03:05.340 A very small possibility.
00:03:07.180 You don't have the itch to come back at all.
00:03:09.100 Even if I could, Binance has very strong leaders now.
00:03:12.400 They run the company much better than if I were to go back.
00:03:16.500 I view myself as more of a zero to one kind of guy, where from like one to a hundred, there are other people who are…
00:03:22.220 To say that, that's not easy to say.
00:03:23.660 Most people don't have the – that's why you're not an ego guy, though.
00:03:26.940 For you to be able to say that, the average guy can't say something like that.
00:03:29.760 I'm not a ego guy.
00:03:30.540 I'm a normal guy.
00:03:31.580 Like, I'm not – yeah.
00:03:32.460 You're not a normal guy.
00:03:33.480 But, you know, to say, you know, zero to one, you know, and you're not a 1-200.
00:03:38.080 Very few founders can say that.
00:03:41.220 I think it's my personality, right?
00:03:42.840 I like to create things, whereas running things, you know, you have to be structured.
00:03:46.120 You have a lot of – you know, there's a lot of structure, a lot of bureaucracy.
00:03:49.500 when i see like you know even even sometimes i hear about what's happening in binance and i
00:03:55.460 there's a bureaucracy that drive me nuts yeah yeah i can i can only imagine that but it's
00:04:00.940 probably got to be also a little bit uh relieved to not have to make any decisions you're free
00:04:07.120 they have to do it you're free you're doing your own thing and you know they're gonna have to run
00:04:11.960 the company and you still are majority shareholders so if the company goes to half a trillion
00:04:16.140 you're going to be benefiting from it.
00:04:18.160 So that's a good place to be.
00:04:19.500 So, okay.
00:04:20.360 So this happens.
00:04:22.020 You're off.
00:04:22.400 By the way, did you ever meet with the president?
00:04:24.200 Have you and the president ever met or no?
00:04:25.700 No.
00:04:26.940 I saw him in person in Davos where he was on stage
00:04:29.800 and I was in the audience.
00:04:31.000 We didn't say hi.
00:04:32.420 I didn't get it.
00:04:32.960 When year was this?
00:04:33.700 This is last year.
00:04:35.360 This is Davos last year.
00:04:36.180 Oh, this is Davos last year.
00:04:37.160 Yeah, yeah.
00:04:37.800 This year, actually.
00:04:38.700 It was in January, right?
00:04:39.560 This is the one where Newsom was standing on the side
00:04:41.480 and didn't let him give one of the talks.
00:04:43.100 Yes.
00:04:43.280 The controversy there.
00:04:44.480 Yes.
00:04:44.700 Did you see Newsom?
00:04:46.140 No, I didn't see Newsom.
00:04:47.500 Did any of the Democratic guys approach you and recognize you?
00:04:50.860 Did they come up to you?
00:04:52.020 No, at least they didn't come and talk to me.
00:04:55.180 I was only there for one day.
00:04:56.560 I was only there for like, no.
00:04:57.740 Did you speak or was it just a networking dinner conversations?
00:05:01.020 I was there for a dinner and I spoke on stage.
00:05:03.420 I was on a panel and then I had the Andrew Sorkins interview with CNBC.
00:05:09.080 So I did those three things.
00:05:10.580 I flew out.
00:05:11.660 Is this it?
00:05:12.260 this is a free man,
00:05:14.060 by an answer on the two,
00:05:14.800 no,
00:05:14.940 he was a,
00:05:15.420 yeah,
00:05:15.580 yeah,
00:05:15.820 yeah.
00:05:16.060 So it was,
00:05:16.500 this was outside.
00:05:17.600 So the sun,
00:05:18.120 the sun,
00:05:18.900 like my glasses look good on you,
00:05:20.500 buddy.
00:05:20.720 I got to tell you that you look good with those glasses.
00:05:22.640 It's the same glasses.
00:05:23.420 Is it except that one?
00:05:24.600 It's the same.
00:05:25.400 In the sun,
00:05:26.080 it turns darker.
00:05:26.700 Okay.
00:05:27.040 Well,
00:05:27.200 the dark look is a good look.
00:05:29.320 You got a,
00:05:29.860 you got a James Bond,
00:05:30.780 uh,
00:05:31.000 looking,
00:05:31.440 uh,
00:05:31.840 you know,
00:05:32.200 look going on there for you.
00:05:33.340 But by the way,
00:05:33.900 you want to play that Merrick Garland clip.
00:05:35.300 I just love the way he says it.
00:05:36.980 Like he is celebrating your fall,
00:05:42.260 finance has agreed to plead guilty to willfully violating the bank secrecy act knowingly failing
00:05:48.540 to register as a money transmitting business go to the part about the biggest fine the international
00:05:54.000 it was a seven second clip by this later billions of dollars no i wanted to get to the clip okay you
00:05:59.800 don't have the clip it's okay we don't have to show it so he's not a very much liked guy he did
00:06:05.160 a lot of weird things when he had power and he was one of those guys that wanted to use his power
00:06:10.540 to take down different guys.
00:06:13.100 And if you weren't willing to help them out
00:06:14.620 and you took their biggest stoner,
00:06:15.780 I wouldn't be surprised if he got a call from somebody
00:06:17.900 to say, let's target CZ.
00:06:19.300 Not saying the stuff that you guys did,
00:06:21.720 you know, probably didn't break a couple laws
00:06:25.720 that we have because of the transfers
00:06:27.620 that was taking place.
00:06:28.700 But still, you could tell they were interested
00:06:31.300 in targeting a guy like you.
00:06:32.900 Till the last minute, they wanted to protect SPF.
00:06:36.740 Sorry?
00:06:37.380 You were going to say something.
00:06:38.280 Yeah, no.
00:06:39.020 They even attacked President Trump.
00:06:40.540 right president trump got charges criminal charges for bringing a document to his bathroom
00:06:45.460 yeah no they tried it they try to they try to destroy uh the the president and and the good
00:06:54.100 thing about the market is like you said the constitution it's interesting for you to say
00:06:57.600 how powerful the constitution is to go from there to where it's at today relationship with trump is
00:07:02.440 there's a conversation about the fact that you help them with a technology that they have what
00:07:06.740 is the relationship with you and the family this basically no relationship um so um there's no
00:07:12.580 business relationships there's no commercial relations what is that company's name there's
00:07:16.260 a company name that they talk about something liberty right or world liberty finance yeah
00:07:20.340 what's the relationship with you and world liberty we don't have we don't have any nothing we don't
00:07:24.420 have any relationships um uh yeah i think they when they said so world liberty finance issues
00:07:30.900 a stablecoin called USD1 and USD1 is deployed on BNB Chain which is a public blockchain that
00:07:36.900 anyone can deploy a smart contract. The smart contract is open source and BNB Chain's developers
00:07:42.980 probably give them like a sample code which is you know pretty much publicly available so that's
00:07:49.620 probably what they were referring to making up a story saying and this is nothing to do with Binance
00:07:54.100 nothing to do with me personally so we don't have any stake in USD1 or World Liberty Finance
00:07:59.940 they don't have a stake in us um there were reports about you know there was a deal about
00:08:04.020 you know giving some equity of binance or binance us to get a partner there's no such transactions
00:08:08.260 they don't own any equity in any of those entities yeah that's a story that you'll see all over the
00:08:13.540 place the fact that hey there was this was a back deal you helped them out this was their way
00:08:18.260 in exchange for uh the pardon that you got etc etc when we set out to create a shoe that blends
00:08:25.060 comfort, function, and luxury. We had the choice to make it fast. We had the choice to make it
00:08:31.660 cheap. We chose neither. Instead, we chose Tuscaneiro. We chose true Italian craftsmanship,
00:08:39.060 each pair touched by 50 skilled hands. We chose patience, spending two years perfecting every
00:08:44.960 detail, and we chose the finest quality at every step. Introducing the Future Looks Bright
00:08:51.700 collection. Not rushed, not disposable, not ordinary. Rather intentional, luxurious, timeless.