Friday, October 24, 2025 - US President, Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who previously pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge in 2023. Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed the decision.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a
statement asserting that 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 statement further argued that the Biden administration's
sentencing of Zhao—who goes by the initials CZ—was excessively harsh, a view
shared by the President and his top advisers following Binance's months-long
lobbying campaign for the pardon.
The pardon, which was first reported by The Wall Street
Journal, could potentially allow Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange,
to operate in the U.S. once again.
Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison in May 2024 after
pleading guilty to charges that he failed to maintain an effective anti-money
laundering program. As part of a coordinated settlement with the federal
government in 2023, Zhao stepped down as CEO of the exchange he founded in 2017
and agreed to pay $200 million in fines.
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