Changpeng Zhao, the founder of crypto exchange Binance, was pardoned by President Trump today, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move comes after months of lobbying by the company and Zhao’s own efforts to boost the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial.
In April of 2024, Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he and Binance had failed to adequately implement anti-money laundering protections. The company was also hit with a massive $4.3 billion fine as part of its settlement with the Department of Justice under the Biden administration. The department said that Binance had become a hub of criminal money laundering, facilitating “billions of dollars of unregulated cryptocurrency transactions,” including “nearly” $900 million in transactions between the US and Iran.
The Trump White House, however, has been much more sympathetic to Binance’s plight and that of the crypto industry in general. In May, the SEC dropped its lawsuit against the company. And now, with a pardon in hand, the way has been paved for Zhao and Binance to potentially return to business in the US. The pardon will also end the DOJ’s monitoring of Binance, though a separate Treasury program is still on the books for now.
In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump “exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency… The Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over.”
When asked about the pardon later in the day, President Trump seemed unsure of who Zhao was, saying, “I do pardon a lot of people,” before suggesting that “a lot of people said he wasn’t guilty of anything.” He followed that up by attacking the reporter who had asked why he chose to pardon Zhao, telling her, “you know nothing about nothing, you fake news.”
Zhao is just the latest in a long string of tech industry pardons from Trump. In January, he pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who ran the dark web marketplace Silk Road. He followed that in March by pardoning former Nikola CEO Trevor Milton, as well as BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Dalo, and Samuel Reed.
Trump was also once a critic of the crypto industry, but has since changed his tune as his family seeks to make millions in the market. Zhao remains an influential figure in the crypto scene, using his clout to boost World Liberty Financial and, apparently, holding talks with the Trump family about taking a financial stake in Binance. The Wall Street Journal even suggested that such a stake in the company could be contingent upon a pardon, which might raise more than a few eyebrows. As other wealthy tech CEOs have found out, sometimes it’s easy to buy a solution to your problems with the current administration.
Update, October 23rd: Embedded a Bluesky post and added details about a statement from President Trump.
