OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
9:09 AM – Friday, October 24, 2025
President Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt released a statement on Thursday, saying 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.”
“In their desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry, the Biden Administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,” she noted. “The Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over.”
The pardon clears Zhao of his 2023 conviction for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and failing to maintain anti-money-laundering controls in his currency exchange. At the time, prosecutors claimed that Binance was a hub for illicit transactions where criminal organizations laundered billions.
Binance paid a $4.3 billion fine to settle federal charges and was then banned from operating in the United States. After serving four months in prison, Zhao stepped down from the role of CEO.
“Deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice,” Zhao wrote on X Thursday. “Will do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto.”
In another post on Friday, CZ wrote, “Overall, I think I have always been lucky. It (the process) was extremely painful, but it didn’t break me. My official record was tarnished for a bit, but my reputation held strong. No one, not a single person, stopped doing business with me. My family, friends and community supported me. I was never alone. Thank you for your support! Let’s keep building.”
A representative of Binance said that the company “remains focused on building a secure, transparent, and user-first platform that reduces fees and increases access to the financial system for all.”
“Let me just tell you that he was somebody that, as I was told, I don’t know him, I don’t believe I’ve ever met him, but I’ve been told by, a lot of support, he had a lot of support, and they said that what he did is not even a crime,” Trump said during a roundtable in the White House State Dining Room on Thursday. “It wasn’t a crime, that he was persecuted by the Biden administration, and so, I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.”
Last year, the Trump family also launched a crypto firm called World Liberty Financial, which is hosted on Binance. The pardon drew attention from Democrats, who claim that his decision may be a conflict of interest, given the Trump family’s growing wealth from cryptocurrency.
Crypto investors, however, have rejoiced in the news of Zhao’s pardon. The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance’s BNB token has jumped almost 80% this year, which makes it the fourth-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, ether, and tether, according to CoinMarketCap.
Following the news of Trump’s clemency decision, Bitcoin rose nearly 2% on Thursday.
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