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Donald Trump issued a pardon for the founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Thursday.
“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,” a White House statement said. “The war on crypto is over.”
Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in late 2023 to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money laundering program and stepped down as CEO of Binance, which paid $4.3bn to settle related allegations. He was sentenced to four months in prison.
Zhao, who is often referred to by his initials CZ, is one of the world’s richest people and biggest names in cryptocurrency. He built Binance into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, although the company has been barred from operating in the US after his 2023 guilty plea.
Trump’s pardon is an immense victory for Zhao and Binance after months of speculation and lobbying. It’s also yet another sign of the Trump administration’s shift toward easing scrutiny on the crypto industry, at a time when Trump and his family are building their own multibillion dollar crypto empire.
Representatives from Trump’s family crypto business have held talks with Binance about taking a stake in the US arm of the exchange, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year. Zhao disputed that he was seeking to make a deal in exchange for a pardon.
“Fact: I have had no discussions of a Binance US deal with … well, anyone,” Zhao claimed in a post on X in March. “No felon would mind a pardon,” he added.
The US justice department’s case against Binance accused the company of failing to report over 100,000 suspicious transactions to law enforcement, including those involving US-designated terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and Hamas. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company in 2023 but dropped the suit soon after Trump was inaugurated.
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Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
