Trump pardons crypto titan who enriched family

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in August 2025 — The pardon follows 'months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family's own crypto company'

(Image credit: Samsul Said / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

What happened

President Donald Trump pardoned billionaire cryptocurrency magnate Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of Binance, the White House said Thursday. Zhao, commonly known as CZ, served four months in prison last year after he and his company pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering by terrorists, drug traffickers, purveyors of child sexual abuse material and other criminals.

Who said what

The pardon followed “months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company,” said The Wall Street Journal. That company, World Liberty Financial, “has generated significantly more income for the Trump family in the past year than their property portfolio ever has annually,” and “Binance has been one of the main drivers of the growth.” A Binance deal earlier this year involving the United Arab Emirates and a World Liberty stablecoin is “poised to generate tens of millions of dollars a year for the Trumps and the family of Steve Witkoff, the president’s top Middle East adviser,” The New York Times said. But Zhao also “hired lawyers and lobbyists with ties to the Trump administration” to push for his pardon.

“I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people,” Trump said Thursday. “A lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Zhao was “prosecuted by the Biden administration in their war on cryptocurrency.”

What next?

Trump’s pardon “could pave the way” for Zhao to retake the head of the cryptocurrency exchange he cofounded, Reuters said, and “may offer the chance for Binance to expand in the United States.” It’s “unclear what the pardon means” for the $4.3 billion fine Binance agreed to pay the government, The Washington Post said.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.