President Trump on Thursday pardoned Binance co-founder and former cryptocurrency kingpin Changpeng Zhao, following a months-long campaign by Zhao and other crypto leaders.
Zhao served four months in prison last year after pleading guilty to violating U.S. finance laws in 2023. The Canadian businessman admitted that Binance essentially permitted money laundering on the platform, allowing everyone from drug cartels and terrorist groups to child sex traffickers to conduct business on the exchange.
Following his release and Trump’s inauguration, Zhao launched a multi-pronged push for a presidential pardon. He praised Trump on podcasts, partnered with his family’s cryptocurrency company and paid lobbyists to plead his case.
“First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge. Then he boosted one of Donald Trump’s crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon. Today, Donald Trump did his part and pardoned him,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a statement Thursday.
During his run for a second term, Trump pivoted to a strong pro-crypto stance after the industry threw millions of dollars into his election campaign. The move was spurred in part by the crackdown led by the administration of then-president Biden.
Since winning the election, Trump has dropped several Biden-era investigations into crypto companies and heavily promoted the industry, including coins launched by his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr.
Many people have criticized the Trump-backed cryptocurrencies as blatant corruption mechanisms, with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) calling one “exclusive” Trump crypto event in May “the Mount Everest of corruption.”
With News Wire Services
