CZ said that Binance holding 87% of USD1 reflects user demand, arguing that the exchange dominates most of the major coins.
Binance users hold about 87% of USD1, a stablecoin linked to Trump, according to a Forbes report published on February 9, 2026, which puts most of the token’s circulating supply on a single exchange.
The focus has drawn criticism online, but Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao says statistics show user demand for all stablecoins rather than a politically-charged monopoly.
Exchange Dominance Draws Focus
A Forbes report found that Binance controls about $4.7 billion of the $5.4 billion USD1 supply, based on data from Arkham Intelligence. That’s the highest share of any single exchange holding the other top 10 stablecoins, Forbes notes that the holding includes both wallets managed by Binance and customer balances, though it’s not clear how much is associated with the exchange itself.
World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture backed by several members of President Donald Trump’s family, is launching a token in March 2025, with CZ among the first to share the news publicly.
Trump is also listed as a co-founder, and several organizations affiliated with him are entitled to a large portion of the proceeds of the project’s management token, WLFI.
The concentration of prisoners has drawn criticism from independent researcher Molly White, who told Forbes that it creates a “perceived risk” if assets are tied up in legal or labor disputes. Corey Frayer, former adviser to the SEC chairman, continued, questioning whether USD1 was designed to function as a broad stablecoin at all.
However, Zhao responded on social media, writing,
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“Binance (users) own the largest % of stablecoins (USDT, USDC, USD1, U … you name it) compared to all other CEXs. It’s not news.”
The backlash surrounding the token remains within the wider scrutiny of Zhao and Binance. The former CEO received a presidential pardon in October 2025 after pleading guilty in 2023 to failure to comply with the law related to money laundering.
His lawyer said in a November 2025 interview that the case was out of control and rejected requests for political favors.
FUD Pattern and Market Reality
The conversation is also taking place amid what CZ and Binance executives describe as a coordinated campaign of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD).
Earlier this month, Zhao exposed a fake social media account with 863,000 followers that used AI-generated images of himself to first pose as a supporter and then spread negative sentiment. In addition, a separate AI analysis report alleges a “deliberate and coordinated defamation campaign” against the exchange.
Market data suggests that Binance’s dominance extends beyond a single stablecoin, especially considering that a CryptoQuant report from January showed that Binance took 41% of spot trading volume and 42% of Bitcoin futures volume among the top exchanges in 2025.
According to the report, the exchange also held 72% of the combined USDT and USDC funds on the major platforms, a context that supports Zhao’s argument that large user holdings on the exchange are normal.
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