CZ, the founder of Binance, and Justin Sun, Tron Blockchain’s founder, claim to have been targeted in a smear campaign by The Wall Street Journal in a bid to make them enemies.

Changpeng Zhao, a Chinese and Canadian citizen known in crypto circles as CZ, also maintains that he was told WSJ employees were paid to write a recent article that he described as a ‘hit piece’.

The article, run today (12 April) by the WSJ, claims that CZ was given a reduced four-month sentence in federal prison for anti-money laundering charges in exchange for tipping off Federal Law Enforcement officials about Sun.

In an X post Saturday, CZ said “WSJ Journal is really TRYING here … I heard someone paid WSJ employees to smear me.”

Screen shot of post where CZ complains of a possible "smear". Image is a screen shot (Newsflash /NX)

And in a surprise move, Justin Sun backed him up and was supportive of CZ’s defence.

In a post on X about the article in WSJ, Sun said: “They always try to use rumours to drive us apart, to divide us instead of unite us. Crypto is already a small space—only by standing together can we change everything!”.

In another X post Sun described CZ as a “mentor and friend” while noting that the US DOJ was one of Tron’s “closest and most trusted partners.”

Screen shot of post where Justin Sun says CZ is "both my partner and my mentor". Image is a screen shot (Newsflash /NX)

Daily Goat co-publisher Daniel Mark Harrison waded into the X debate with a post on Friday, claiming that he had witnessed similar smear campaigns before involving “kickbacks.” It is not clear whether CZ had read Harrison's post, which was made before CZ's comments about WSJ employees being paid to write negative things about him.  

“It's a real shame the standards to which @WSJ has fallen in the past few years. They seem to love taking kickbacks to write hit pieces about people. I've seen this myself before. Get your guys to contact their legal @cz_binance because they're constantly at it. Constantly,” Harrison wrote on X.

Asked by Daily Goat to expand on his X post, Harrison said it had to do with an incident that took place about 5 years ago.

“In early 2020, I was contacted by a reporter at the WSJ who was seemingly hell-bent on writing a personal hit-piece on me. This journalist had been taken to task before for dodgy reporting that was clearly motivated by something other than truth discovery,” said Harrison.

“Ultimately, I complained about it to their legal team and editor, and the piece was scrapped.”

The WSJ has been criticised before for taking an anti-crypto stance, and in particular, for publishing negative news on Binance.

CZ, the founder of Binance, and Justin Sun, Tron Blockchain’s founder. (Newsflash/NX)

In March this year, the paper reported that CZ had reached a deal with Trump for a pardon in exchange for letting the Trump family acquire a stake in Binance.

CZ hit back at the paper then. He said on X: “I have had no discussions of a Binance US deal with … well, anyone.” 

He added that the article was “motivated to attack the President and crypto.”

It is widely known that Trump has a pro-crypto policy stance, the first time a US administration has embraced such a position.

On Friday, CZ speculated openly as the cause of what he openly describes as “fake news”.

CZ, Binance's Founder. (Newsflash/NX)

One possible cause, according to crypto’s number one player, is that the “WSj “just wants to sell clicks.” Second, he said that he had heard rumours of “some players lobbying against [Binance].”  

If the reports by WSJ turn out to be untrue, it will be a damaging blow for one of the world’s biggest financial publications.

The WSJ has been contacted for comment.