On October 21, 2025, Trump signed a “full and unconditional pardon” for Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. It was not announced; the White House confirmed it two days later. Zhao pleaded guilty in November 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program, stepped down as Binance's chief executive, paid a $50 million fine and served four months in prison. Binance agreed to pay more than $4.3 billion, which then-Attorney General Merrick Garland called “one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history.” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said at the time that Binance's “willful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform.”
Binance had been doing business with the Trump family's crypto company. In May 2025, World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin was chosen to close MGX's $2 billion investment in Binance (see A Firm Tied to the UAE's National Security Adviser Bought 49% of Trump's Crypto Company Four Days Before His Inauguration). The Wall Street Journal reported, as relayed by CNBC, that World Liberty had been helped by “a partnership with an under-the-radar trading platform quietly administered by Binance.” In September 2025 Binance retained the lobbyist Charles McDowell, a friend of Donald Trump Jr., whose firm was paid $450,000 for a month's work that included lobbying the White House and the Treasury for “executive relief.” Zhao had separately paid the attorney Teresa Goody Guillén $30,000 to lobby for “executive relief.” In May 2025 the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its civil case against Binance and Zhao, saying the dismissal was appropriate “in the exercise of its discretion and as a policy matter.”
Trump's explanations changed. On October 23 he said, “A lot of people say that he wasn't guilty of anything,” adding, “And so I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.” On 60 Minutes on November 2: “I don't know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.” Press secretary Karoline Leavitt later said he meant that he has no personal relationship with Zhao. The White House said Zhao was “prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency” and pursued “despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims.” Prosecutors had sought three years; the judge imposed four months, and the pardon did not change a sentence Zhao had already served.
Binance and Zhao deny any arrangement. Binance's chief executive, Richard Teng, said MGX chose USD1: “We didn't partake in that decision.” Zhao told Fox News, “There's no deal, there has never been any discussions. It's as simple as that.” No reporting shows the pardon was granted in exchange for anything. The law professor Lawrence Lessig told 60 Minutes, “There's no clear evidence of quid pro quo. But there wouldn't be.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “Then he boosted one of Donald Trump's crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon.”