US President Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao on Oct. 22, clearing the convicted Binance founder’s criminal record.
This followed months of cooperation between the crypto exchange and the Trump family’s digital asset business, according to people familiar with the matter reported by the Wall Street Journal.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the pardon in a statement on Oct. 22.
Donald Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Changpeng Zhao, who was prosecuted by the former President Joe Biden administration in their war on cryptocurrency, Leavitt said.
Trump indicated to advisers recently that he sympathized with arguments of political persecution related to Zhao and others, sources revealed.
The president signed the pardon on Wednesday, the people said.
Changpeng Zhao Served Four-Month Sentence for Money-Laundering Violations
Zhao left prison in September 2024 after serving a four-month sentence for violating US anti-money-laundering requirements.
The Justice Department imposed a record $4.3 billion fine and burdensome oversight on Binance in 2023.
Authorities said the exchange became a colossal money-laundering hub through which sanctioned groups and criminal organizations laundered billions of dollars in illicit funds.
Binance pleaded guilty in 2023 to the violations and was barred from operating in the US. The company spent nearly a year pursuing a pardon for its founder Changpeng Zhao, and Binance hired lobbyist Ches McDowell earlier in 2025 to help secure it.
Pardon May Clear Path for Binance Return to US Markets
The pardon for Changpeng Zhao will likely pave the way for Binance to return to the US. The company lost ground to rivals due to its legal troubles.
Binance executives met with Treasury officials in spring 2025 to discuss loosening US oversight on the company, the Wall Street Journal previously reported.
The pardon may prematurely end the Justice Department’s three-year Binance monitorship. The monitorship was set up to ensure the company complied with US financial crime laws.
However, it likely won’t end a separate monitorship established by the Treasury Department without additional approval from Trump or the Treasury secretary.
Binance became a key supporter of Trump’s family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture since Trump’s election.
The business drove a huge leap in the president’s personal wealth. World Liberty generated significantly more income for the Trump family in the past year than their property portfolio ever generated annually.
Binance was one of the main drivers of growth for World Liberty’s dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, called USD1.
The exchange delivered World Liberty’s first major break in spring 2025 when it accepted a $2 billion investment from an outside investor paid in USD1. Binance also incentivized trading in USD1 across platforms it controlled.
Binance first reached out to Trump allies in 2024, offering to strike a business deal with the family as part of a plan to return the company to the US, according to reports in early 2025.
Representatives of the Trump family reportedly met to discuss taking a financial stake in Binance’s US arm.
Changpeng Zhao said at the time he hadn’t discussed a Binance.US deal with anyone but wrote on X that no felon would mind a pardon. He later filed a formal pardon application and hired a US lobbyist.