U.S. President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal published on Oct. 23.
The decision marks a stunning comeback for the founder of the world's largest crypto trading exchange — and a signal that the Donald Trump administration may be taking a sharply different approach to digital-asset regulation.
Zhao expressed gratefulness for the pardon and thanked the president for "upholding America's commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice." He said he will do everything possible to make America the crypto capital.
The report says the decision follows months of private outreach between Zhao and Trump's inner circle, including efforts by the Binance founder to support the Trump family's own crypto venture.
The president signed the pardon on Oct. 22, sources told the WSJ.
"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," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Journal . "The Biden Administration's war on crypto is over."
Congratulatory messages pour in
The crypto community celebrated the pardon and congratulated Zhao. Entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano said :
"It is great to see CZ receive a pardon. He has done an excellent job innovating in finance and helping advance America's interest around the world. There is no place for political targeting in the US justice system, regardless of which side does it."
Noted economist and Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff congratulated Zhao on the pardon,
"Let's celebrate with a Bitcoin versus tokenized gold debate."
BNB and ASTER jump
BNB, the coin supporting the BNB chain ecosystem, jumped more than 5% in the last 24 hours to trade at $1,129.02 at the time of writing.
ASTER, the native token of Zhao's VC firm Yzi Labs-backed decentralized crypto trading exchange Aster, also jumped more than 8% during the period to trade at $1.08.
Tracing Zhao's legal case
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance and its founder for operating unregistered exchanges and selling unregistered securities in June 2023.
Next, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged them with anti-money-laundering (AML) violations in November 2023. The authorities accused the world's largest exchange of failing to block illicit transactions linked to sanctioned countries like Iran and Russia.
Zhao himself pleaded guilty to failing to maintain adequate AML standards and stepped down as CEO. He also agreed to pay a $50 million personal fine.
In April 2024, a U.S. federal judge sentenced him to four months in prison. He served his prison time and went back to Dubai later that year.
Crypto ties between Zhao and Trump
After Trump came to power in January, several cases filed against crypto exchanges during the Joe Biden era began to get dropped. In February, the SEC and Binance jointly urged a court to pause a separate civil case against the exchange and its US arm in February 2025.
As per a March report by WSJ , representatives of the Trump family had held talks to acquire a financial stake in the U.S. arm of Binance. Binance executives also considered investing in Trump's crypto venture World Liberty Financial to secure a pardon for CZ.
As reported earlier , Trump's son Eric said in an event in May that USD1, the stablecoin launched by World Liberty Financial, will be used to settle the $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi state's MGX firm into Binance.
TheStreet Roundtable reached out to Zhao but his team declined to comment on the matter.
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Oct 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the Policy section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
