Posted on 10/23/2025 9:07:10 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
President Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, the founder of crypto exchange Binance, according to a statement from the White House.
Why it matters: The company had been lobbying Trump for more than a year — the pardon likely provides a path for Binance to operate in the U.S.
What they're saying: ""President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency. In their desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry, the Biden Administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims," White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Catch up fast: CZ was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
Rumors of investigations into the company swirled for years. CZ stepped down at the time and new CEO Richard Teng has run Binance since.
The big picture: CZ is arguably the most successful entrepreneur in the history of the still new cryptocurrency industry, launching the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, one of its most popular blockchains and making countless investments across the space.
Readers may remember his name from the bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. In that story, he offered to save the company and then backed out once he got a look at the books.
Lately, he's been stewarding investments from his massive fund, Yzi Labs.
"The action against Binance and its founder was a joint effort by the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Treasury Department. The Securities and Exchange Commission was notably absent.
"Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a release Tuesday that the exchange allowed illicit actors to make more than 100,000 transactions that supported activities such as terrorism and illegal narcotics and that it allowed more than 1.5 million virtual currency trades that violated U.S. sanctions.
"It also allowed transactions associated with terrorist groups such as Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, al-Qaida and ISIS, Yellen said in the release, noting Binance 'never filed a single suspicious activity report.' " [I'm in the securities industry, and we have to file reports on any unusual cash movements. There are very clearcut protocols, for which we have to be recertified every six months.]
Santos was just a fringe wackjob. This guy has blood on his hands. He wasn't the victim of a "war on cryptocurrency." It was a war on terror finance.
This is going to make liberals’ heads explode. Trump is a genius
Doesn’t matter.
Trump is more hones than most presidents. They wait until the last second to pardon people.
Was this part of the oil deal with China ? Regardless the oil deal was much more important.
Totally! Pardoning this Chinese national while letting American patriot Tina peters rot in jail is such a 3456789-d chess move we’re gonna maga our brains out till the cows come home! God, I love that man! Remember…THIS is winning!
Tina Peters is jailed by Colorado state, T$ can’t pardon her
My idea is an incumbent President running for re-election should only be able to grant pardons up to election day. If he loses, then no more pardons from that point on.
And now Trump's actually pardoning the POS CEO. I'm sure it has nothing to do with Trump family's crypto company making a multi-billion dollar deal with Binance.
Starting to think Trump is as swampy as all the rest. But, hey....it's all about owning the libs I guess.
I think this could more accurately be described as a deal with the Trump family crypto venture
“Starting to think Trump is as swampy as all the rest. But, hey....it’s all about owning the libs I guess.”
I mean, that’s half the appeal. The corruption is laid bare. There’s none of the secretive BS common with the libs.
It apparetntly is also making Miami Rebel’s head esplode as well, based upon the comments he left.
LOL!
Doesn’t look good, but he’s the President and the pardon power is essentially absolute and unreviewable by the Federal Judiciary.
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