{"id":48398,"date":"2025-10-23T10:37:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/?p=48398"},"modified":"2025-10-23T10:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:37:10","slug":"trump-pardons-binance-founder-cz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/trump-pardons-binance-founder-cz","title":{"rendered":"Trump Pardons Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao: WSJ"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

President Donald Trump has granted a full pardon to Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of crypto exchange Binance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move follows months of lobbying<\/a> by Zhao and allies who argued his prosecution was politically motivated. Sources said Zhao had also explored partnerships to bolster the Trump family\u2019s own crypto ventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump signed the pardon on Wednesday, according<\/a> to the Wall Street Journal, marking one of his most controversial decisions since returning to the White House. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advisers said he had recently expressed sympathy for Zhao, describing the Binance founder\u2019s case as part of a broader \u201cwar on cryptocurrency\u201d waged by the previous administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the pardon, saying Trump had \u201cexercised his constitutional authority\u201d to right what he viewed as a politically driven prosecution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Biden Administration\u2019s war on crypto<\/a> is over,\u201d she said, according to WSJ.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zhao, who had pleaded guilty<\/a> to violating U.S. anti\u2013money laundering laws, was serving a sentence related to Binance\u2019s compliance failures. The pardon effectively clears his record and could reshape Washington\u2019s stance toward the crypto industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rumors had been circulating that former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, better known as \u201cCZ,\u201d was under consideration for a presidential pardon this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to FOX Business\u2019 Charles Gasparino, discussions<\/a> inside the Trump White House had intensified over whether to pardon Zhao this most recent quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s decision and attention on the matter was reportedly divided between foreign policy flashpoints \u2014 including conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and\u00a0renewed trade tensions<\/a>\u00a0with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Binance or Zhao have not made a public comment yet. This story is developing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CZ background<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Changpeng Zhao\u2019s 2023 conviction marked one of the most high-profile cases in the government\u2019s campaign against major exchanges.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. prosecutors accused Binance of allowing illicit transactions with sanctioned entities and failing to implement proper anti-money-laundering controls. CZ pleaded<\/a> guilty, stepped down as CEO, and paid a personal fine of $50 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zhao served a four-month prison sentence. He was sentenced in April 2024 and released in September 2024, after spending time in a low-security federal prison in California and then a halfway house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, even critics of Binance have questioned whether the criminal charges were proportionate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s team reportedly sees Zhao\u2019s situation as an opportunity to demonstrate a \u201cnew era\u201d of crypto policy \u2014 one that favors innovation over punishment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump has granted a full pardon to Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of crypto exchange Binance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3817,"featured_media":48399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4378],"tags":[826,1862,1129,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-48398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-binance","9":"tag-changpeng-zhao","10":"tag-cz","11":"tag-trump"},"author_data":{"id":3817,"name":"Micah Zimmerman","nicename":"micahzimmerman","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Micah_Zimmerman_Author_Image.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Trump-Pardons-Binance-Founder-Changpeng-Zhao-WSJ.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}