US President Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who the White House says was «politically persecuted» by the previous administration.
US President Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who the White House says was «politically persecuted» by the previous administration.
White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said that Trump «exercised his constitutional authority to pardon Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden administration as part of the cryptocurrency war,» the WSJ reported.
«The Biden administration’s war on cryptocurrency is over,» Levitt said.
The decision could mark the beginning of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, returning to the U.S. market. In 2023, the company pleaded guilty to violating U.S. anti-money laundering requirements and was barred from operating in the country.
Binance spent nearly a year seeking clemency for Zhao, who was released from prison in September 2024 after serving four months on related charges. Earlier this year, the company hired lobbyist Chas McDowell to help secure the clemency.
Earlier, the Department of Justice imposed a record fine of $4.3 billion on Binance and began meticulous monitoring, stating that the company had become a colossal money laundering center through which sanctioned groups and criminal organizations laundered billions of dollars in illicit funds.
The pardon could also prematurely end the three-year monitoring of Binance by the Department of Justice, established to ensure the company complies with US financial crimes laws.
Binance first reached out to Trump allies last year, offering to strike a business deal with the family as part of a plan to bring the company back to the U.S. Representatives of the Trump family have held talks to acquire a financial stake in Binance’s U.S. unit.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering safeguards. Zhao, who once headed the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, pleaded guilty in November 2023. According to Judge Richard Jones, Zhao prioritized «Binance’s growth and profits over compliance with U.S. laws and regulations.»
Zhao later said that he was initially unrecognizable in prison, but then rumors spread about his vast wealth and cryptocurrency products. According to him, in prison he was often asked which cryptocurrency was the best to buy. «I don’t have access to any information. I don’t even know what the market looks like,» Zhao would tell inquisitive inmates and prison guards.
