- Trump pardons Binance founder Zhao, ending Biden-era crypto prosecution.
- White House defends pardon, citing bias and lack of fraud allegations.
- Move follows Trump-linked crypto venture and prior clemency for Santos.
President Donald Trump has officially pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, who was convicted in 2023 for violations of U.S. financial laws linked to money laundering activities on the cryptocurrency exchange. The White House confirmed the decision Thursday, describing it as an act to “end the Biden Administration’s war on cryptocurrency.”
Zhao, known widely as “CZ,” pleaded guilty in November 2023 in federal court in Seattle to violating the Bank Secrecy Act. As part of the plea agreement, he stepped down as Binance’s CEO, following a $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Prosecutors had accused Zhao and Binance of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, violating U.S. economic sanctions, and failing to implement an effective anti-money-laundering program.
Despite the government’s request for a three-year prison term, Zhao was sentenced in April 2024 to four months in federal custody. The DOJ’s statement at the time alleged Binance had “willfully profited from the U.S. market without applying the compliance measures required by law.”
White House Statement Defends Decision
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an official release that President Trump exercised his constitutional authority to issue the pardon, arguing that Zhao’s prosecution stemmed from a political agenda rather than criminal intent. “The Biden Administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,” Leavitt stated. She also criticized federal prosecutors for seeking a sentence “so far outside Sentencing Guidelines that even the judge remarked he had never seen anything like it in 30 years.”
Leavitt said the pardon signals the administration’s decision to “end the Biden Administration’s war on crypto,” calling the earlier prosecution a blow to the U.S.’s global standing in technology and innovation.
Context of the Pardon
The decision comes two months after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump family’s own crypto venture, valued at roughly $4.5 billion since the 2024 election, had received support through “a partnership with an under-the-radar trading platform quietly administered by Binance.”
It also follows Trump’s recent commutation of former Rep. George Santos’s 87-month sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, suggesting a broader pattern of executive clemency toward high-profile figures convicted under the previous administration’s financial crime investigations.
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About the Author: Peter Mwangi
