Trump considers pardoning Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao

People inside Donald Trump’s camp are now seriously talking about a presidential pardon for Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the former boss of ￰0￱ sources allegedly told FOX Business’ Charles Gasparino that the conversation has picked up in recent ￰1￱ say the Trump team is treating it like a real option, though perhaps for the tenth time this ￰2￱ crypto community’s beloved CZ ran into trouble with the feds back in ￰3￱ cut a plea deal with the ￰4￱ of Justice, admitting guilt to money laundering charges, which also forced him to step down as CEO and cost Binance a massive $4.3 billion in ￰5￱ top of that, CZ personally had to cough up $50 million and serve four months in ￰6￱ got sentenced in April 2024, did time at a low-security federal prison in California, then finished up at a halfway ￰7￱ got out in September 2024.

Trump’s team pushes back on crypto crackdown According to Charles, many inside Trump’s circle think CZ got railroaded. They’re calling it political, part of what they describe as the Biden administration’s war on ￰8￱ pardon idea fits into a bigger plan most of them have been pushing all year: a hard pivot toward pro-crypto ￰9￱ believe the former administration deliberately treated crypto leaders like criminals instead of ￰10￱ some critics of Binance think the government went ￰11￱ original case claimed CZ let the exchange process illegal transactions, including those involving sanctioned parties, and failed to set up strong anti-money-laundering ￰12￱ whether the punishment fits the crime has always been a hot ￰13￱ argue that CZ was made into an example during an election ￰14￱ still owns the biggest single stake in Binance.

A pardon could bring him back into formal ￰15￱ started the company in 2017, and under his watch it became the world’s largest place to trade Bitcoin and other ￰16￱ now, he’s not in charge, but his influence remains strong behind the scenes. A cleared name would change everything. Still, nothing moves fast in Trump ￰17￱ attention is stretched across several global fights: Ukraine, Gaza, and even China, where trade tensions are flaring up ￰18￱ familiar with how clemency decisions are made say they often take longer than expected, especially with this kind of ￰19￱ $50 free to trade crypto when you sign up to Bybit now