President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, the White House announced on Thursday.
Zhao, a Chinese native who created the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, previously pleaded guilty in November 2023 to federal charges alleging that he and Binance had willfully failed to follow laws intended to thwart money laundering. At the time, Zhao agreed to resign as Binance CEO, where he was replaced by Richard Teng, and pay a $50 million fine. Binance also pled guilty and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines.
Zhao was sentenced to serve four months in prison in April 2024 and was released from federal custody in September 2024. It was subsequently reported by the New York Times in August that Zhao was campaigning for a pardon from President Trump, which he has now received.
“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,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Thursday statement. “In their desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry, the Biden administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims.”
Leavitt noted on Thursday that federal prosecutors had originally called for Zhao to be sentenced to three years in prison, rather than four months. “The Biden administration sought to imprison Mr. Zhao for three years, a sentence so outside Sentencing Guidelines that even the Judge said he had never heard of this in his 30-year career,” she noted.
“These actions by the Biden administration severely damaged the United States’ reputation as a global leader in technology and innovation,” Leavitt concluded. “The Biden administration’s war on crypto is over.”
Zhao also has reported ties to World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company launched by Trump and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. in September 2024. According to a Reuters report, the former Binance CEO met with Zach Witkoff, a World Liberty co-founder and the son of the United States’ special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, and two other World Liberty co-founders in Abu Dhabi in April.
The Associated Press reports that Trump made more than $57 million from World Liberty Financial in 2024.
Zhao’s pardon comes just days after Trump also commuted the prison sentence of former Republican New York congressman George Santos, who had previously been sentenced to serve 87 months in jail after pleading guilty to charges of wire fraud and identity theft.
