US President Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the condemned founder of the giant Binance cryptocurrency exchangea White House official said Thursday, the latest in a series of clemency statements toward crypto executives and other criminals.
In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “exercised his constitutional authority by pardoning Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden administration in its war on cryptocurrency.”
Zhao said in a post on the social media platform He added: “We will do everything we can to make America the cryptocurrency capital.”
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zhao, a billionaire and one of the most influential figures in the crypto sector, resigned as head of Binance in 2023 after the company pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and paid a $4.3 billion fine.
Zhao, a Chinese-born Canadian citizen, personally paid a $50 million fine last year and served nearly four months in prison plead guilty to the same charge. However, he retained his Binance stake and one of his appointees became the company’s managing director.
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The U.S. Constitution gives the president broad authority to issue pardons to overturn federal criminal convictions or commutations to change sentences. In the past, presidents have largely waited until the end of their term to exercise these powers, but there is no obligation 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.
News of the pardon was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The latest in the pardon series
Zhao’s pardon is the latest in a series that Trump has granted to crypto executives and entrepreneurs, as well as others convicted of economic crimes.
While the details of the pardon have not yet been announced, it could pave the way for Zhao to return to the company he co-founded in 2017. It could also provide an opportunity for Binance to expand in the United States as the crypto industry booms under the Trump administration.
The Republican president in 2024 secured support from the crypto industry for his second term as president by promising to do so
Reversing the policies of Joe Biden, whose administration has targeted crypto companies for fraud and illegal financial violations.
In March, Trump also pardoned the three co-founders of crypto exchange BitMEX who pleaded guilty in 2022 to failing to implement an anti-money laundering program compliant with the Bank Secrecy Act.
He also pardoned the founder of the electric truck company Nikola, who was convicted of fraud, and commuted the sentence of the CEO of the now-defunct startup Ozy Media.
In January, Trump also pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for leading the US president Underground online marketplace Silk Road but remained a popular figure within the crypto community.
