US President Donald Trump has granted a pardon to Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, months after the exchange’s former CEO confirmed he had requested a presidential pardon, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Zhao served four months in prison in 2024 after pleading guilty in November 2023 to charges of violating the Bank Secrecy Act. As part of his plea deal, he resigned as director of Binance, the exchange he founded and led since 2017, and agreed to a $50 million fine. Binance also pleaded guilty to the charges and accepted a court-appointed monitor, as well as a record $4.3 billion fine paid to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Treasury Department.
At the time, federal prosecutors claimed that Binance employees knew they were violating the Bank Secrecy Act, citing chat logs between different staff members. The exchange served users in sanctioned countries, and “facilitated transactions between U.S. users and users in sanctioned countries,” said then-Attorney General Merrick Garland.
With a pardon, Zhao can conduct more business operations in the United States. If Binance also gets a pardon, as BitMEX did earlier this year, it could be easier for it to expand its operations in the United States.
Zhao said he requested clemency in May 2025, after reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal indicated that his team had requested clemency for him.
Binance previously received a $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based MGX, which used Trump-linked World Liberty Financial’s $1 stablecoin to make the investment.
BNB originally created as the native token of CZ’s Binance exchange and now as the native currency of BNB Chain, added around 3% in the minutes following the news.
In a statement, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said: “First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of money laundering. Then, he boosted one of Donald Trump’s crypto businesses and pushed for a pardon. Today, Donald Trump did his part and pardoned him. If Congress does not end this type of corruption in pending market structure legislation, it is responsible for this lawlessness. “
UPDATE (October 23, 2025, 3:58 p.m. UTC): Adds additional details.
UPDATE (October 23, 2025, 4:20 p.m. UTC): Adds Warren’s statement.
