According to Bloomberg, on October 23, local time, US President Trump pardoned Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao. It is one of the most significant steps Trump has taken to embrace the cryptocurrency industry and provide legal pardons to some of the biggest names in the space.
On the same day, Trump told the media that Changpeng Zhao had been "persecuted" by the Biden administration, adding that he had "never met Changpeng Zhao." "Many people said he did not make any mistakes. At the request of many influential people, I pardoned him." After the news came out, the price of Binance-related token BNB rose that day.
BNB price chart
Changpeng Zhao posted on the
When asked "whether this pardon is a transfer of benefits," White House spokesman Levitt said on the 23rd that White House lawyers "conducted a very thorough review" of each pardon.
The report pointed out that this move is another leniency order recently granted by Trump to cryptocurrency entrepreneurs. It not only highlights the Trump administration’s stance of positioning itself as a “friend of cryptocurrency”, but also exposes the fact that the Trump family has profited from it. Binance once assisted a company owned by the Trump family to launch a stable currency, which may bring it tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue.
Trump has previously used presidential power to drop multiple prosecutions that were at the center of the Biden administration’s cryptocurrency industry enforcement agenda. He pardoned Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, who was sentenced to life in prison for condoning criminal activities in darknet markets, and also pardoned multiple founders of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX.
Changpeng Zhao founded Binance in 2017, and the exchange later developed into the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. In June 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed 13 charges against Binance and Changpeng Zhao, including allegedly artificially inflating trading volumes, diverting customer funds, failing to restrict U.S. customers from using its platform, and misleading investors in terms of its market supervision controls.
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao Bloomberg
In November 2023, Changpeng Zhao reached a plea agreement with the US government and served 4 months in prison to settle the years-long investigation into Binance. Binance admitted to engaging in alleged money laundering, unlicensed remittances and sanctions violations and agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine.
Changpeng Zhao had previously served his sentence in Lompoc Prison in California. After he was released from prison, he met with Witkov, the co-founder of "World Free Finance Corporation" and now serving as Trump's special envoy for the Middle East.
According to the report, Zhao Changpeng’s pardon has long been “widely anticipated” by his friends, partners and the entire encryption industry. Driven by rumors that "the pardon is imminent," the price of BNB hit a record high last month; after Trump officially announced the pardon on the 23rd, the price of BNB rose again.
Binance and Changpeng Zhao are core supporters of the Trump family’s encryption company, World Freedom Financial Corporation. Binance wrote the underlying code for the company’s stablecoin USD1 and promoted the use of USD1 in a $2 billion transaction through which MGX Fund Company, which has a background in the UAE royal family, acquired part of Binance’s equity.
According to the plea agreement in 2023, Changpeng Zhao resigned as Binance CEO, but he recently changed his personal profile on social platforms from "former Binance staff" to "current Binance staff". This change triggered heated discussions on social media.
It is reported that Changpeng Zhao still holds a controlling stake in Binance. After Trump was elected president, Binance's valuation immediately rose sharply; according to the "Bloomberg Billionaires Index", Changpeng Zhao's current net worth has reached US$54.5 billion.