Donald Trump pardons founder of world’s biggest crypto exchange

“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,” Bloomberg quotes White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as saying.

At the same time, Trump also dismissed several other criminal cases related to the previous anti-crypto policy. In particular, pardons were granted to Silk Road darknet market founder Ross Ulbricht, who had been serving a life sentence, and to the founders of the BitMEX crypto exchange.

Why was the founder of Binance convicted?

Changpeng Zhao was sentenced in April last year for violating anti–money laundering laws. According to prosecutors, who sought a three-year prison sentence, the illegal transactions conducted under his leadership caused significant harm to US national security.

Earlier, in November 2023, Zhao stepped down as Binance’s CEO and agreed to pay a $50 million fine.

Zhao founded the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in 2017. He eventually found himself in trouble for failing to implement adequate anti–money laundering measures and pleaded guilty to violating an agreement with the US government.

Donald Trump pardoned participants of the rally of his supporters who unlawfully stormed the Capitol in January 2021. The list includes more than a thousand names.

Meanwhile, former US President Joe Biden, just hours before the end of his term, decided to pardon several officials.