WSJ: WLFI Founder's Middle East Trip Brokered by CZ, Introduction Likened Trump to "The Godfather"

BlockBeats News, May 23rd, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy, flew to the UAE to discuss regional issues a month before Trump took office and participated in a cryptocurrency-themed conference.

Steve Witkoff's son and founder of World Liberty Financial, Zach Witkoff, often refers to Trump as the "Godfather" when introducing cryptocurrency companies and states that WLFI will be able to take full advantage of the evolving U.S. cryptocurrency regulatory policies. Zach Witkoff had met with several Pakistani government officials and proposed to them that WLFI could use blockchain technology to "tokenize" the buying and selling of the country's rare earth minerals, just weeks before these officials negotiated the Indo-Pak ceasefire agreement with the Trump administration.

Assisting WLFI in some of its overseas arrangements was Binance founder CZ. A WLFI spokesperson stated that CZ is only a friend of Zach Witkoff and not a "middleman."

Furthermore, the WLFI team has also discussed token purchase matters with other companies in the Gulf region, hinting that such transactions could support their expansion plans in the U.S. However, a company spokesperson denied this claim.