“I don’t hold grudges or anything, right? I just want to help to grow crypto anywhere in the world, and to do that, we need to help grow crypto in America.”
The Canadian national said he won’t participate at any level in U.S. politics, despite his industry’s growing reputation for political campaigning and influence. But he supports the U.S. aim to be the world’s crypto capital, and he sat for the interview during a trip to Washington.
In the meantime, he’s focused on the early backing of “highly impactful companies that may not be highly profitable companies.” So far, his criminal-justice experience hasn’t been a drag on those relationships.
“I had guys who apologized to me that they had a misunderstanding before,” CZ recalled. “They said, ‘Well, I thought there was some financial fraud.'”
If anything, he said, it’s been helpful.
“Sometimes it actually works as a plus,” he said. “It kind of builds your character that you went through this really difficult time and this unfair time, and you were tested and you were scrutinized, but they didn’t find any real issues, really. Well, there was the violation of the BSA, which I do not dispute, but there’s no fraud.”
