US president Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance.
Zhao, widely known as CZ, pleaded guilty in November 2023 to violating anti-money-laundering laws and US sanctions. The plea formed part of a sweeping deal with the US Department of Justice, under which Binance was required to pay a record-breaking $4.3 billion penalty.
Zhao ultimately spent four months in federal prison. The DOJ had originally petitioned for a three-year prison sentence.
After issuing the pardon, the White House has cast Zhao as the victim of a plot to trample the crypto industry carried out by the administration of former president Joe Biden. Regulators brought a volley of lawsuits against high-profile businesses during this era, and the DOJ prosecuted crypto industry figureheads for fraud.
“In their desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry, the Biden administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,” says White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “The Biden administration’s war on crypto is over.”
Zhao, who founded Binance in 2017, is something of a legend in cryptoland for his bullish pronouncements and flair for social media. Until his guilty plea, he routinely used his platform on X to dismiss allegations of wrongdoing at Binance.
Zhao is the latest in a line of crypto figureheads pardoned by Trump. The president has received endorsements and millions of dollars in donations from members of the industry.
Immediately after returning to office, Trump commuted the prison sentence of Ross Ulbricht, creator of darknet marketplace Silk Road. In late March, Trump pardoned the cofounders of crypto exchange BitMEX, who in 2022 pleaded guilty to charges relating to their failure to maintain an adequate anti-money-laundering program.
Though Zhao has already served his allotted prison sentence, the pardon will strike the anti-money-laundering and sanctions violations from his criminal record.
“For him, I think this is really about clearing his name,” claims Patrick Hillmann, who previously worked under Zhao as chief strategy officer at Binance. “I think this is closure for him.”
The pardon could also clear the way for Binance to return to the US market, which it was forced to exit as a condition of the DOJ settlement. Binance has spent months pursuing a pardon for Zhao, who was released from prison in September 2024, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
In January, in an interview with WIRED, Richard Teng, who replaced Zhao as Binance CEO, played down the company’s ambitions to return to the US after Trump’s return to the White House. “The US is not something we are focusing on now,” he said.
Critics have framed Zhao’s pardon as a reward for assisting the Trump family as it extends into various corners of the crypto sector. In May, Binance agreed to receive a $2 billion investment denominated in USD1, a stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, a crypto business cofounded by the Trump family. The arrangement could be worth tens of millions of dollars to World Liberty Financial.
“First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a criminal money-laundering charge. Then he boosted one of Donald Trump’s crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon,” says Elizabeth Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, in a statement to WIRED. “If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption in pending market structure legislation, it owns this lawlessness.”
