The Trump administration is reportedly “leaning toward a pardon” for Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in 2024 and spent four months in prison.
According to New York Post columnist and Fox correspondent Charles Gasparino, sources close to Zhao said that Trump insiders believe the case against CZ was “pretty weak, and certainly not something that merited a felony charge and jail time.”
“Trump… is leaning toward a pardon (consider the source), which could set the stage for CZ’s return to the crypto exchange since he remains Binance’s largest shareholder,” he said, citing people close to Zhao.
Under the Trump Administration, the White House has taken a friendlier approach to crypto, with regulators dismissing long-running enforcement actions, advancing legislation aimed at regulating the industry and also pardoning three BitMEX founders, including Arthur Hayes, and Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.
Changpeng Zhao seemingly unaware of any deal
Zhao responded to Gasparino on Friday but didn’t confirm if he knew anything about a potential pardon. In May, the former Binance exec confirmed on the Farokh Radio podcast that he had officially applied for a pardon after seeing media reports that he had already sought one.
“Thank you, Charles. Great news if true. Minor correction, there were no fraud charges. I believe they (the DOJ under the last administration) looked very hard for it, but didn’t find any. I pleaded to a single violation of the Banking Secrecy Act (BSA),” Zhao said.
“I believe I am the only person to ever be sentenced to jail in US history for a single violation of BSA, with no other charges, no prior history. Thank you for the coverage,” he added in another post.
Binance, Zhao and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Zhao pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge in November 2023 as part of a deal Binance reached with US authorities, which saw the exchange pay a $4.3 billion fine, and Zhao was fined $50 million.
He was also forced to step down as CEO, served four months in prison, and was prohibited from working at Binance as part of his plea deal.
Trump’s crypto ties could hamper pardon
Gasparino said a final decision is expected soon. Still, a potential hurdle for the pardon going forward is concerns from “Some in the White House,” about the “optics of a pardon given the president’s business interests in crypto, so the situation is obviously fluid.”
President Donald Trump and his family’s ties to the crypto sector, through ventures such as his memecoin and decentralized finance protocol World Liberty Financial, have raised conflict-of-interest concerns before.
“Keep in mind these things often drag on longer than expected, and this president does have more pressing matters that he’s dealing with, like getting the Israeli hostages returned, ending the broader Gaza conflict, as well as the one in Ukraine, on top of tariffs and a trade deal with China,” Gasparino added.
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CZ enforcement action is an aftershock from FTX collapse
At the same time, Gasparino, citing Eleanor Terrett, one of the hosts of the Crypto In America podcast and a former FOX Business reporter, said top crypto executives, some with ties to the White House, think CZ’s charges were a result of an overreaction from lawmakers after the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX.
SBF, once the leader of the $32 billion FTX exchange, is serving a 25-year prison sentence for seven felony charges related to the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research in November 2022.
“CZ wasn’t accused of fraud like SBF, and many industry players see his jail sentence as the result of regulators — still with egg on their faces, post-FTX — making an example out of anyone in crypto who operated in or around the US,” Terrett reportedly said.
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