Changpeng Zhao and his crypto exchange were fined over $4 billion after a 2023 guilty plea to money laundering violations

US President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who was previously convicted of enabling money laundering at the crypto exchange, the White House has announced.

Binance and then-CEO Zhao pleaded guilty in November 2023 to violating the US Bank Secrecy Act, admitting they failed to enforce anti-money-laundering rules. Prosecutors said the exchange failed to report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions, including those tied to terrorism and child exploitation. Binance was banned from operating in the US and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines, while Zhao resigned as CEO and paid $50 million. He was later sentenced to four months in prison.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Trump had "exercised his constitutional authority" by pardoning Zhao, claiming he had been "egregiously oversentenced" by the administration of former President Joe Biden "in their war on cryptocurrency."

The announcement followed months of Binance lobbying and came amid its growing ties with Trump. Formerly a crypto skeptic, the president last year vowed to make the US the "crypto capital of the world." Trump's family has deepened ties to the industry through ventures and investments. Binance earlier this year backed the World Liberty Financial - a crypto-venture co-founded by Trump and his sons, which has raised approximately $550 million in token sales since 2024 - by accepting its USD1 stablecoin.

The pardon for Zhao, which analysts say could allow Binance to resume operations in the US, drew criticism that Trump was aiding a figure whose company had financially benefited his family. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Senate Banking Committee's ranking member, denounced the move as "corruption" and urged Congress to act.

Critics have claimed Trump's crypto ventures and political power overlap dangerously. In August, the New York Times accused him of using his office to promote personal crypto projects, including a Solana-based 'TRUMP' token launched earlier this year.

Trump, who last month filed a $15 billion defamation suit against the paper, defended pardoning Zhao, telling reporters he had acted "at the request of a lot of very good people." Zhao thanked Trump on X, vowing to "do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto."

(RT.com)