Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao two years after the crypto billionaire’s guilty plea
President Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed to Fortune on 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,” she said in a statement. The Wall Street Journal first broke the news, reporting that Trump signed the pardon on Wednesday.
The decision comes after months of reports that Trump was weighing whether to pardon Zhao, who is popularly known as CZ in the crypto industry. The Binance founder pleaded guilty in 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering regime while he was the CEO of the crypto exchange. He stepped down as CEO and served four months in prison in 2024.
As part of the 2023 plea deal, Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle charges with the Department of Justice. Prosecutors alleged that the crypto exchange violated U.S. economic sanctions and money laundering laws. “We need a banner ‘is washing drug money too hard these days – come to binance we got cake for you,’” one compliance employee wrote in internal company communications, according to the plea agreement.
Following Zhao’s resignation as CEO, Binance installed Richard Teng, a former financial regulator in the U.A.E. and Singapore, to telegraph to authorities that the company had turned a new leaf and was focused on compliance.
Spokespeople for Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The price of BNB, the cryptocurrency closely associated with Binance, rocketed 15% shortly after the news broke Thursday morning, notching a high of more than $1,150, according to data from the crypto exchange.
Crypto champion
The President’s pardon of Zhao is the clearest sign yet that the crypto industry has enjoyed unprecedented favor under Trump’s administration. Zhao is also not the first crypto criminal Trump has pardoned since the President assumed office.
Formerly a crypto skeptic, Trump embraced the industry in his 2024 campaign for reelection, as crypto executives poured millions in donations into Trump-associated super PACs, or political action committees.
When he entered the White House in January, Trump began to make good on his campaign promise of making the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.”
He pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison for his role in founding the Silk Road, an online black market where users used Bitcoin to buy and sell illicit substances. He also pardoned the founders of the crypto exchange BitMEX, who pleaded guilty in 2022 for operating an exchange that prosecutors said failed to operate an effective anti-money laundering program.
Trump also issued crypto-focused executive orders, and his administration slashed enforcement units in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Justice Department.
Amid Trump’s pro-crypto policies, his sons, Eric and Donald Jr., grew the family’s business with a sprawling array of crypto ventures. One of those, World Liberty Financial, has reportedly worked with Zhao and Binance. The confluence of the Trump family’s business with the President’s official actions in office has alarmed ethics experts and Democrats.
“If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption in pending market structure legislation, it owns this lawlessness,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D—Mass.) in a statement, referring to a crypto bill that is under deliberations in the Senate.
