President Donald Trump has granted a pardon to Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder of Binance, after months of behind-the-scenes efforts by Zhao and his allies to secure clemency.
Zhao thanked Trump in a post on X, writing that he was “deeply grateful” for the pardon and pledging to help “make America the Capital of Crypto.” The move is expected to remove a key barrier to Binance’s reentry into the U.S. market, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating U.S. anti–money laundering laws and was barred from operating in the country. The U.S. Justice Department had imposed a record $4.3 billion penalty and placed the company under a three-year monitorship, citing what prosecutors described as a vast money-laundering hub that enabled sanctioned groups and criminal organizations to move illicit funds.
The pardon of Zhao, who served four months in prison and was released in September 2024, could cut short the DOJ monitorship, though a separate Treasury Department monitorship would likely remain in effect absent further action by the Trump administration, the Journal reported.
The clemency caps an intensive campaign by Binance to rehabilitate Zhao and reset the company’s U.S. prospects, the newspaper said.
Earlier this year the firm hired lobbyist Ches McDowell to help pursue a pardon, and it has cultivated ties with the Trump family since the 2024 election. Binance emerged as a key supporter of World Liberty Financial, the family’s crypto venture that has markedly boosted the president’s personal wealth.
Zhao, who lives in Abu Dhabi, founded Binance in 2017 and scaled it to an estimated 300 million users worldwide, according to the news agency. Prosecutors have argued that the illicit transactions the exchange enabled under his leadership caused “significant harm to U.S. national security.”
Read more at The Wall Street Journal