{"id":99923,"date":"2025-10-23T18:07:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=99923"},"modified":"2025-10-23T18:07:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:07:35","slug":"president-trump-pardons-binance-founder-changpeng-zhao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=99923","title":{"rendered":"President Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Changpeng Zhao, founder of the world\u2019s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has been pardoned by US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Zhao, also known as \u201cCZ\u201d, was\u00a0sentenced to four months in prison\u00a0in April 2024 after pleading guilty to violating US money laundering laws.<\/p>\n

Binance was ordered to pay $4.3bn (\u00a33.4bn) after a US investigation found it helped users bypass sanctions.<\/p>\n

A White House official confirmed to the BBC Zhao has been pardoned, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

Binance has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

The exchange, which is registered in the Cayman Islands, remains the world\u2019s most popular platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.<\/p>\n

According to the WSJ, the company has spent nearly a year pursuing a pardon for its former boss, who completed his four month prison sentence in September 2024.<\/p>\n

Zhao stepped down from the company in November 2023.<\/p>\n

He wrote in a post on X it was \u201cnot easy to let go emotionally\u201d but \u201cthe right thing to do\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made mistakes, and I must take responsibility,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

US officials at the time accused Binance and Zhao of \u201cwilful violations\u201d of its laws \u2013 saying they had threatened the US financial system and national security.<\/p>\n

\u201cBinance turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in the pursuit of profit,\u201d said then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts wilful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move to pardon Zhaocomes amid the Trump administration\u2019s adoption of a more friendly stance towards cryptocurrency than his predecessors.<\/p>\n

The President has vowed to make the US the \u201ccrypto capital\u201d of the world and made his own mark in the digital currency landscape by releasing his own coin\u00a0shortly ahead of his inauguration in January.<\/p>\n

Since then, he has sought to establish a national cryptocurrency reserve and\u00a0pushed for making it easier\u00a0for Americans to use retirement savings to invest in them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PresidentChangpeng Zhao, founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has been pardoned by US President Donald Trump.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11076,1910,10,9,2286],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-changpeng-zhao","category-international","category-politics","category-popular","category-trump"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}