Table of Contents
- What Happened to Changpeng Zhao?
- Trump’s Crypto Reversal
- Binance’s Money-Laundering Scandal
- Political and Financial Fallout
- Sources
Trump Pardons Binance Founder CZ
In a stunning executive action on Thursday, October 23, 2025, former President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to Changpeng Zhao—widely known as “CZ”—the billionaire founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The move effectively erases Zhao’s 2023 federal conviction for money-laundering violations, which stemmed from a yearslong investigation by U.S. financial regulators.
Zhao had already served four months in federal prison after pleading guilty to willfully failing to implement anti-money laundering (AML) controls. Those lapses allegedly allowed terrorist groups and other criminal organizations to move illicit funds through Binance’s platform.
Trump’s Crypto Reversal: From Skeptic to Savior?
Once a vocal critic of digital assets, Trump has dramatically shifted his stance since returning to the White House. His administration has rolled back what it calls the “Biden-era war on crypto,” halting enforcement actions against major firms like Coinbase and Kraken.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt framed the pardon as a restoration of fairness: “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. The Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over.”
Binance’s Money-Laundering Scandal: A Quick Recap
Binance’s legal troubles began long before Zhao’s guilty plea. Regulators accused the exchange of:
- Operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business in the U.S.
- Failing to verify customer identities
- Ignoring red flags tied to sanctioned entities and darknet markets
The Department of Justice estimated that billions in illicit funds flowed through Binance between 2017 and 2023, including transactions linked to Hamas, Al-Qaeda affiliates, and ransomware gangs.
Political and Financial Fallout
The pardon has raised eyebrows—not just for its timing, but for the apparent financial ties between Zhao and the Trump family. According to The New York Times, Binance recently inked a strategic partnership with World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump.
The deal is expected to generate “tens of millions of dollars a year” for the Trumps and the family of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s top Middle East adviser. Zhao also retained lobbyists and legal counsel with deep connections to the Trump administration to advocate for clemency.
This isn’t the first time Trump has shown leniency toward crypto figures. He previously pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the creator of Silk Road, the infamous darknet marketplace that operated on Bitcoin.
Sources
The New York Times: Trump Pardons Founder of the Crypto Exchange Binance
