Trump’s CZ Pardon Sparks Fury — Congresswoman Leads The Backlash

US President Donald Trump signed a pardon for Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao on October 23, 2025, clearing a federal conviction tied to anti-money-laundering ￰0￱ to Reuters and the Associated Press, Zhao had pleaded guilty in 2023, paid a $50 million fine, and served about four months in ￰1￱ itself agreed to more than $4 billion in penalties related to US enforcement ￰2￱ Demand Answers Representative Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, called the pardon “appalling but unsurprising” and accused the administration of favoring wealthy ￰3￱ on reports from her office, Waters alleges that CZ spent months lobbying the president and his family and “funneled billions” into a Trump-linked crypto venture, World Liberty ￰4￱ and other Democrats said they want records and ￰5￱ reacted quickly after the ￰6￱ data showed Binance’s native token BNB rising in intraday trading, with some estimates putting gains between about 3% and 8% at peak ￰7￱ trading volume jumped roughly 35% above recent averages on some platforms as traders digested the ￰8￱ investors said the pardon might reduce near-term regulatory risk for Binance-related ￰9￱ Context And Reaction Zhao’s conviction stemmed from charges under the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to establish an effective anti-money-laundering ￰10￱ accepted a $50 million penalty and served approximately four months behind ￰11￱ presidential pardon removes the federal criminal conviction from his record but does not erase the facts of the case or the company’s ￰12￱ to multiple outlets, CZ expressed gratitude for the pardon and said he hopes to support US crypto efforts going ￰13￱ grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and ￰14￱ do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto and advance web3 worldwide.

(Still in flight, more posts to come.)… — CZ BNB (@cz_binance) October 23, 2025 Political figures responded ￰15￱ Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats blasted the decision and raised concerns about influence and ￰16￱ Republican lawmakers framed the move as a reset for US engagement with the crypto ￰17￱ have disclosed that congressional offices are weighing oversight steps to probe any private meetings, donations, or contracts tied to the ￰18￱ the same time, exact financial links referenced in Waters’s statement remain incomplete in public ￰19￱ image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView