Donald Trump

Silk Road

President Donald Trump

Update (Oct. 13 at 2:45 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from a White House official.
The Trump administration is reportedly “leaning toward a pardon” for Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in 2024 and spent four months in prison.
According to New York Post columnist and Fox correspondent Charles Gasparino, sources close to Zhao said that Trump insiders believe the case against CZ was “pretty weak, and certainly not something that merited a felony charge and jail time.”
“Trump… is leaning toward a pardon (consider the source), which could set the stage for CZ’s return to the crypto exchange since he remains Binance’s largest shareholder,” he said, citing people close to Zhao.
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-10/0199db69-41d9-7893-8116-15f73d471cdf" title="" alt="White House reportedly mulling pardon for Binance founder CZ">
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 Source: <a href="https://x.com/CGasparino/status/1976750696533033053" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="https://x.com/CGasparino/status/1976750696533033053">Charles Gasparino</a>
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Under the Trump Administration, the White House has taken a friendlier approach to crypto, with <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/sec-dismisses-lawsuit-against-binance-filings-show" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">regulators dismissing long-running</a> enforcement actions, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/donald-trump-stablecoin-law-signed" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">advancing legislation</a> aimed at regulating the industry and also pardoning <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/donald-trump-pardon-bitmex-founders" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">three BitMEX founders,</a> including Arthur Hayes, and <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/trump-pardon-ross-ulbricht-silk-road" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht</a>.
<h2 id="changpeng-zhao-seemingly-unaware-of-any-deal">Changpeng Zhao seemingly unaware of any deal</h2>
Zhao <a href="https://x.com/cz_binance/status/1976761597230973024" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">responded</a> to Gasparino on Friday but didn’t confirm if he knew anything about a potential pardon. In May, the former Binance <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/changpeng-zhao-cz-binance-asked-trump-pardon" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">exec confirmed on the Farokh Radio podcast</a> that he had officially applied for a pardon after seeing media reports that he had already sought one.
“Thank you, Charles. Great news if true. Minor correction, there were no fraud charges. I believe they (the DOJ under the last administration) looked very hard for it, but didn’t find any. I pleaded to a single violation of the Banking Secrecy Act (BSA),” Zhao said.&nbsp;
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-10/0199db69-467b-7e5c-a99c-8c22562fdcd5" title="" alt="White House reportedly mulling pardon for Binance founder CZ">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Source: <a href="https://x.com/cz_binance/status/1976761597230973024" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="https://x.com/cz_binance/status/1976761597230973024">Changpeng “CZ” Zhao</a>
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“I believe I am the only person to ever be sentenced to jail in US history for a single violation of BSA, with no other charges, no prior history. Thank you for the coverage,” he <a href="https://x.com/cz_binance/status/1976871975441342805" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">added</a> in another post.
Binance and Zhao didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.&nbsp;
A White House official told Cointelegraph:
<blockquote>
 “The White House does not comment on the existence or nonexistence of pardons. The President, not anonymous sources, is the final decider on pardons.“
</blockquote>
Zhao pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge in November 2023 as part of a deal Binance reached with US authorities, which saw the exchange <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-officials-announce-binance-settlement" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">pay a $4.3 billion fine</a>, and Zhao was fined $50 million.
He was also <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-ceo-changpeng-zhao-banned-crypto-exchange" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">forced to step down as CEO</a>, served four months in prison, and was prohibited from working at Binance as part of his plea deal.
<h2 id="trump-s-crypto-ties-could-hamper-pardon">Trump’s crypto ties could hamper pardon</h2>
Gasparino said a final decision is expected soon. Still, a potential hurdle for the pardon going forward is concerns from “Some in the White House,” about the “optics of a pardon given the president’s business interests in crypto, so the situation is obviously fluid.”
President Donald Trump and his family’s ties to the crypto sector, through ventures such as his memecoin and decentralized finance protocol World Liberty Financial, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/trumps-crypto-insider-trading-conflict-of-interest-concerns/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">have raised conflict-of-interest concerns before</a>.&nbsp;
“Keep in mind these things often drag on longer than expected, and this president does have more pressing matters that he’s dealing with, like getting the Israeli hostages returned, ending the broader Gaza conflict, as well as the one in Ukraine, on top of tariffs and a trade deal with China,” Gasparino added.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/polymarket-changpeng-zhao-pardon-binance" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Polymarket odds on CZ presidential pardon surge after X profile change</a>
<h2 id="cz-enforcement-action-is-an-aftershock-from-ftx-collapse">CZ enforcement action is an aftershock from FTX collapse</h2>
At the same time, Gasparino, citing Eleanor Terrett, one of the hosts of the Crypto In America podcast and a former FOX Business reporter, said top crypto executives, some with ties to the White House, think CZ’s charges were a result of an overreaction from lawmakers after the collapse of <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/articles/who-is-sam-bankman-fried-ftx" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Sam Bankman-Fried’s</a> FTX.
SBF, once the leader of the $32 billion FTX exchange, is serving a <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/sam-bankman-fried-sentenced-years-prison-hold" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">25-year prison sentence</a> for seven felony charges related to the <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/explained/the-alameda-gap-and-crypto-liquidity-crisis-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">collapse of FTX and Alameda Research</a> in November 2022.
“CZ wasn’t accused of fraud like SBF, and many industry players see his jail sentence as the result of regulators — still with egg on their faces, post-FTX — making an example out of anyone in crypto who operated in or around the US,” Terrett reportedly said.
Magazine:<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/2500-film-about-ftx-collapse-amazon-prime-with-help-from-mom/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> The $2,500 doco about FTX collapse on Amazon Prime… with help from mom</a>
Additional reporting by Turner Wright.

White House reportedly mulling pardon for Binance founder CZ

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