President Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of Binance Holdings Ltd., marking one of the most controversial acts of clemency in his second term. As Bloomberg reports, Zhao, one of the most powerful figures in the cryptocurrency world, had mounted a months-long bid for a presidential pardon after pleading guilty in 2023 to violating U.S. anti–money laundering laws during his tenure as Binance’s chief executive. He was sentenced to four months in prison and stepped down from his leadership role, but retained his controlling stake in the exchange—the source of his estimated $61.4 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The pardon comes amid mounting scrutiny of Trump’s deepening ties to the crypto industry. After Zhao’s conviction, Binance began building close connections with World Liberty Financial, a digital assets platform co-founded by members of the Trump family. The platform, now a cornerstone of the family’s reported $7 billion fortune, operates a stablecoin known as USD1, which was originally coded by Binance developers. Shortly after USD1’s launch, an Emirati state-backed fund called MGX used the coin to invest $2 billion into Binance—a transaction that, Bloomberg notes, gave the Trump-linked venture a lucrative early boost.
When asked about Zhao’s pardon during a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired November 2, Trump appeared to distance himself from the decision. “I don’t know who he is,” he said. Nonetheless, the move underscores Trump’s growing alignment with the digital assets industry—a stark transformation from his first term, when he dismissed Bitcoin as “a scam.”
Zhao’s legal troubles had rocked the global crypto sector. Following a yearslong federal investigation, U.S. prosecutors accused Binance of enabling billions of dollars in transactions tied to hackers, terrorist groups, and sanctions violators through weak compliance systems. Then–Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the company had “turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in the pursuit of profit.” Binance ultimately agreed to pay more than $4 billion in fines, one of the largest penalties in corporate history, and Zhao resigned in November 2023.
Despite the criminal case, Zhao’s influence never fully waned. Bloomberg reports that his fortune—and Binance’s dominance—remained largely intact, buoyed by the ongoing crypto rally and Binance’s sprawling international network. The Securities and Exchange Commission later dropped a related case against him earlier this year. Following the pardon, Zhao posted on X, writing that he was “deeply grateful” to the president for the gesture.
The Trump family’s World Liberty Financial venture has drawn intense ethical scrutiny. Co-founded by Trump’s relatives and associates including developer and special envoy Steve Witkoff, the firm’s rapid rise has raised concerns among lawmakers and watchdogs about potential conflicts of interest. An entity affiliated with the Trump family controls a 38% stake in World Liberty’s parent company, while Bloomberg estimates the family has already earned more than $500 million from token sales and holds 22.5 billion of its proprietary tokens—assets worth hundreds of millions more on paper. The White House has denied any conflict of interest, calling Trump “the most transparent president in history” regarding his finances.
Zhao is not the first crypto figure to receive presidential mercy from Trump. Bloomberg notes that earlier in his second term, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Bitcoin-based dark web market Silk Road, and Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, who had been convicted of violating federal money-laundering laws.
The pardon of Changpeng Zhao adds another chapter to Trump’s evolving relationship with the crypto world—one that has shifted from skepticism to full embrace. As Bloomberg observes, the decision cements the former president’s status as the most crypto-friendly occupant of the Oval Office to date, while raising new questions about where the line between policy and personal profit might ultimately be drawn.
