Trump pardons crypto magnate

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, who is the richest man in crypto, had admitted to money laundering in 2023

- DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY KENNETH VOGEL

US President Donald Trump granted a pardon to Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, wiping away one of the US government's most significant crackdowns on crypto crime.

Zhao had pleaded guilty to money-laundering violations in 2023 and served four months in federal prison, after a years-long investigation by financial regulators and US prosecutors.

“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 said in a statement Thursday. “The Biden administration's war on crypto is over.”

The pardon is the latest example of how high-profile business partners of Trump and his family have benefited from his rollback of the wide-ranging crypto crackdown orchestrated by President Joe Biden. To seek the pardon, Zhao hired lawyers and lobbyists with ties to the Trump administration, while Binance struck a business deal with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto startup.

That deal alone is poised to generate tens of millions of dollars a year for the Trumps and the family of Steve Witkoff, the president's top Middle East adviser.

Trump has granted clemency to several other prominent crypto executives, including Ross Ulbricht, who ran the bitcoin-fuelled drug marketplace Silk Road. And since Trump took office, regulators have dropped lawsuits against Coinbase and several other large crypto firms.