CZ rejects golden statue project, calls linked meme coin a ‘quick buck’ scheme

Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder of Binance, recently took to X, formerly Twitter, to address a fan-funded golden statue project marketed as a way to honor him. He firmly rejected any association, citing its ties to a meme coin launch he views as a “quick buck” scheme. 

The former Binance CEO has been a constant fixture in the headlines this year. After a pardon from President Trump, the former crypto executive is allegedly planning to sue U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren for defamation over statements she made about him. 

CZ smells fish

In his post, which has since gone viral with almost a million views and considerable reposts and comments, CZ expressed appreciation for the gesture before pointing out that “the fact that there is a meme coin associated with this means the creator probably just wanted to make a quick buck off an interaction.” 

“This is something I don’t appreciate. Don’t buy the meme,” he wrote. “I would also never accept a statue of myself. What kind of egomaniac would have a statue of himself in his house? Someone once gave me a t-shirt with my face on it, thinking I would wear it. Again, who has an ego to wear a shirt with their own face on it? As if seeing it once is not enough… Stay safu!”

The statue, which is 4 meters tall, gold-plated, and depicts CZ in his signature “ignore FUD” four-finger salute, was sponsored by an anonymous group of four supporters who crowdfunded about $50,000 to create it. 

The sculpture was unveiled and displayed outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on October 28, 2025, around the time the crypto industry was awash with talk of CZ’s recent presidential pardon by Donald Trump. 

Following the display, they planned to either gift it directly to CZ or auction it off to benefit Giggle Academy, his nonprofit education initiative launched post-Binance settlement. To that end, the project’s X page asked CZ to provide a shipping address for it to be sent to him, and the tweet was his response. 

Binance itself has also announced it has nothing to do with the statue and even distanced itself from the project. The statue’s creation sparked excitement in crypto circles, but controversy arose because of the project’s ties to the meme token called $CZSTATUE on the BNB Chain. 

The token was launched around the statue’s promotion, and rapidly hit a market cap of over $577,000. Despite CZ asking folks not to buy, the market cap has not suffered much, and at the time of this writing, it was hovering just below $2 million as traders continue to speculate. 

With memes, no publicity is bad publicity. So, CZ publicly denouncing the meme project might not actually be a death sentence. 

Zhao sets sights on Elizabeth Warren 

On Wednesday, Changpeng Zhao kind of confirmed rumors that he has plans for a defamation lawsuit against anti-crypto Senator Elizabeth Warren over false money laundering remarks against CZ. Senator Warren and leading Senate Democrats have condemned Donald Trump’s pardon of the Binance founder.

CZ reposted two posts talking about him mulling the lawsuit on the X platform. Cryptoplitan reported that Warren proposed a resolution to condemn Trump’s pardon of CZ, which she has claimed stems from corruption.

Immediately after news broke of CZ’s pardon, she wrote on X: “CZ pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge and was sentenced to prison. But then he financed President Trump’s stablecoin and lobbied for a pardon. Today, he got it. If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption, it owns it.”

Binance and CZ have reportedly hired former SEC attorney Teresa Goody Guillen, and according to a Cryptopolitan report, she is preparing a letter calling for Warren to retract the public statements on social media. Goody Guillen will wait for Warren to refuse, after which they plan to file a defamation lawsuit against the senator.

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