President Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao

Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has been pardoned by US President Donald Trump.

Zhao, also known as “CZ”. Four months imprisonment After pleading guilty in April 2024 to violating US money laundering laws.

Binance was ordered to pay $4.3bn (£3.4bn) after a US investigation found it helped users evade the ban.

White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt called Zhao’s actions part of the “war on cryptocurrency” under the Biden administration.

She claimed Zhao had been targeted “despite no allegations of fraud or an identifiable victim” and said prosecutors’ efforts to seek a three-year prison sentence had “severely damaged the reputation of the United States”.

“The Biden administration’s war on crypto is over,” she said.

The move to pardon Zhao comes amid the Trump administration adopting a more favorable stance toward cryptocurrencies than its predecessors.

The president has vowed to make the US the “crypto capital” of the world and has made his mark on the digital currency landscape by issuing his own coin. Shortly before its inauguration in January.

Since then, he has sought to establish a national cryptocurrency reserve and Pushed to simplify For Americans to use retirement savings to invest in them.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that representatives of the Trump family — which owns its own crypto firm World Liberty Financial — had recently held talks with Binance.

The company has spent nearly a year apologizing to its former boss, who completes his four-month prison sentence in September 2024. The WSJ reported Thursday.

Binance has been contacted for comment.

The Cayman Islands-registered exchange remains the world’s most popular platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

Zhao stepped down from the company in November 2023.

He wrote in a post on X that “letting go emotionally is not easy” but “doing the right thing” is.

“I have made mistakes and I have to take responsibility,” he said.

U.S. officials at the time accused Binance and Zhao of “willful violations” of its laws — which they said put the U.S. financial system and national security at risk.

“Binance turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in its pursuit of profit,” said then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

“His willful failure allowed terrorists, cybercriminals and child abusers to flow through his platform.”