Changpeng Zhao, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has been granted a pardon by US President Donald Trump after many individuals contended he “was not guilty of anything” and argued that his conduct did not constitute a crime.

Speaking to reporters, Trump said that although he had never met Zhao, he acted on the request of “a lot of very good people”. 

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When one reporter asked Trump why he chose to pardon the founder of Binance, Trump said, “I believe we’re talking about the same person, because I do pardon a lot of people. I don’t know. He was recommended by a lot of people,” he said, before confirming if the reporter’s question was about the founder of crypto. 

“A lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty. He served four months in jail, and they say that he was not guilty of anything…. What he did is not even a crime. It wasn’t a crime. He was persecuted by the Biden administration.”

Zhao was released from prison in 2024 after serving a four-month sentence for breaking the Bank Secrecy Act. He was the first person ever to be jailed under that law, and prosecutors said his violations were more serious than any seen before.

Trump went on to say, “I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.”

One reporter noted that the pardon came shortly after reports surfaced about the Trump family’s business ties with World Liberty Financial, the President’s family-owned crypto company. The reporter asked, “How do you respond to allegations from Democrats that this decision amounts to corruption?”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to this and said that Trump only exercised his constitutional authority. 

“I would respond and say the president is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests,” she said.

She added that Trump and White House “thoroughly review” every pardon request before making a decision. “It is thoroughly reviewed by the White House Counsel Office, and I spoke with our great White House Counsel about the pardon after it happened. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration.”

“Deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice,” Zhao wrote on X (formerly Twitter) after the pardon.

He added, “Will do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto and advance web3 worldwide,” before mentioning that his fight is still ongoing. 

This comes after Zhao, in May, said on a podcast that he has applied for a pardon from Trump but has never spoken to him.

Who is Changpeng Zhao?

Changpeng Zhao, who was born in China and holds Canadian citizenship, stepped down as CEO of Binance in 2023 after the company pleaded guilty to violating US anti-money laundering laws and agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine.

Before founding Binance in July 2017, Zhao had founded BijieTech, a company that built exchange systems for other trading platforms, in 2015.

He also served as Head of Development at Blockchain.com from 2013 to 2014, and prior to that, spent eight years as a partner at Fusion Systems, where he developed high-frequency trading systems.

Earlier in his career, Zhao worked at Bloomberg, leading tradebook futures development from 2001 to 2005.