US President Donald Trump pardons former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao after his conviction for money laundering.
Published on October 23, 2025
US President Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, founder of cryptocurrency exchange giant Binance, who was convicted of violating US money laundering laws.
In a statement released Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had “exercised his constitutional authority in granting a pardon to Mr. Zhao, who has been pursued by the Biden administration in its war on cryptocurrency.”
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Zhao said in a post on social media platform He added: “We will do everything we can to help make America the crypto capital. »
Zhao, a billionaire who is one of the most influential figures in the crypto industry, resigned in 2023 as head of Binance after the company pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and paid a $4.3 million fine.
Zhao, a Canadian citizen born in China, was released from prison last year after being sentenced to four months in prison for violating the Bank Secrecy Law.
He was the first person to be sentenced to prison for such violations of the law, which requires U.S. financial institutions to know the identities of their customers, monitor transactions and file reports on suspicious activities. Prosecutors said no one had ever broken regulations to such an extent as Zhao.
The U.S. Constitution gives the president broad authority to grant pardons to expunge federal criminal convictions, or commutations to modify sentences. Historically, presidents have largely waited until the end of their terms to exercise such powers, but there is no requirement for them to do so.
Zhao told a podcaster in May that he had requested a pardon from the Trump administration, adding that he had never spoken to the president.
Zhao’s pardon is the latest in a series Trump has granted to crypto executives and entrepreneurs, as well as others convicted of white-collar crimes.
While details of the pardon have not yet been disclosed, it could pave the way for Zhao to return to the company he co-founded in 2017. It could also provide Binance with the opportunity to expand in the United States as the crypto industry booms under the Trump administration.
In 2024, the Republican president won support from the crypto industry for his second term by promising to reverse the policies of former President Joe Biden, whose administration targeted crypto companies for fraud and illicit financial violations.
In March, Trump also pardoned the three co-founders of crypto exchange BitMEX who had pleaded guilty in 2022 to failing to implement an anti-money laundering program that complied with the Bank Secrecy Act.
He also pardoned the founder of the electric truck company Nikola, convicted of fraud, and commuted the sentence of the director of the now-defunct start-up Ozy Media.
In January, Trump also pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for running the underground online marketplace Silk Road but remained a popular figure within the crypto community.
