Changpeng Zhao, founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has been pardoned by US President Donald Trump.
Zhao, also known as “CZ”, was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024 after pleading guilty to violating US money laundering laws.
Binance was ordered to pay $4.3bn (£3.4bn) after a US investigation found it helped users bypass sanctions.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called Zhao’s prosecution under the Biden administration part of a “war on cryptocurrency”.
She claimed Zhao had been targeted “despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victim” and said prosecutors’ efforts to seek a three-year prison sentence had “severely damaged the United States’ reputation”.
“The Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over,” she said.
The move to pardon Zhao comes amid the Trump administration’s adoption of a more friendly stance towards cryptocurrency than his predecessors.
The President has vowed to make the US the “crypto capital” of the world and made his own mark in the digital currency landscape by releasing his own coin shortly ahead of his inauguration in January.
Since then, he has sought to establish a national cryptocurrency reserve and pushed for making it easier for Americans to use retirement savings to invest in them.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported representatives of the Trump family – which has its own crypto firm World Liberty Financial – had recently held talks with Binance.
The company has spent nearly a year pursuing a pardon for its former boss, who completed his four month prison sentence in September 2024, the WSJ reported on Thursday.
Binance has been approached for comment.
The exchange, which is registered in the Cayman Islands, remains the world’s most popular platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.
Zhao stepped down from the company in November 2023.
He wrote in a post on X it was “not easy to let go emotionally” but “the right thing to do”.
“I made mistakes, and I must take responsibility,” he said.
US officials at the time accused Binance and Zhao of “wilful violations” of its laws – saying they had threatened the US financial system and national security.
“Binance turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in the pursuit of profit,” said then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
“Its wilful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform.”
