Trump Grants Pardon to Changpeng Zhao! Recently, Trump issued a pardon to former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who had been imprisoned for four months for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. Zhao expressed his "deep gratitude" and promised to "fully assist the United States in becoming the cryptocurrency capital." Binance's native token, BNB, rose by 5.6% in the past 24 hours, while the WLFI token of World Liberty Financial surged over 15%.
During a press conference, Trump stated that Zhao faced "persecution" from the Biden administration. He mentioned, "I have indeed pardoned many people. He was recommended by many. Are you referring to that cryptocurrency guy? Many people believe he committed no crime."
Changpeng Zhao was released in September 2024, having admitted to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, and was fined $50 million. Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange he co-founded, agreed to pay $4.3 billion as part of a settlement.
Trump Pardons Changpeng Zhao, Who Once Called It "Fake News"
After making some dismissive comments about the pardon in response to a CNN inquiry, referring to it as "fake news," Trump stated that he did not know Zhao. "I don’t know him; I don’t believe I’ve ever met him," Trump said, "but I’ve heard he has a lot of supporters who say what he did isn’t even a crime… so I granted him a pardon at the request of many very good people."
Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that World Liberty Financial, supported by Trump, had discussed acquiring shares of Binance.US. This report claimed that Zhao sought a presidential pardon, but World Liberty Financial denied that the report was politically motivated. About six weeks later, Abu Dhabi's MGX announced it would use World Liberty Financial's dollar stablecoin in a $2 billion deal with Binance.
Shortly after taking office in January, President Trump signed an executive order granting a full pardon to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Last week, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) claimed that his arrest in 2022 was politically motivated by the Biden administration because he redirected political donations to the Republican Party. SBF was sentenced to nearly 25 years in prison after the collapse of FTX and was found guilty of fraud in a criminal trial.
