President Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance who worked hard to boost the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency business after Trump’s election, following his conviction on charges of money laundering and sanctions violations, the Wall reported Thursday. Street Journal.
Key data
“President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by granting a pardon to Zhao,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on Thursday, adding that Zhao was “prosecuted by the Biden administration in its war on cryptocurrencies.”
Trump signed the pardon on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024 after pleading guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the Department of Justice, which included Zhao’s resignation as CEO of Binance.
Binance has played a key role in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency ventures: Binance listed USD1, the stablecoin created by Trump-backed World Liberty Financial, in May and days later, the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a lawsuit against Binance.
World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff said in May that Binance would receive a $2 billion investment in the form of $1, after Zhao met Witkoff and other World Liberty Financial founders months earlier at a conference in Abu Dhabi.
Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
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Zhao had an estimated fortune of $85.6 billion as of Thursday, making him the 21st richest person in the world. Despite leaving his position at Binance, Zhao still owns approximately 90% of the platform and a reserve of BNB tokens. Trump has an estimated net worth of $7.1 billion, and his most recent financial report indicates he earned more than $57 million in 2024 from World Liberty Financial.
Binance’s BNB token soars after Zhao’s pardon
Binance’s BNB rose 5% on Thursday, paring morning losses and rising from around $1,079 to over $1,131 an hour after Zhao’s pardon was first reported. BNB has soared more than 96% in the last year, becoming the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, behind Tether, Ether and Bitcoin, respectively, according to CoinMarketCap.
Key background
Zhao founded Binance in 2017, leading what became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, with more than 300 million users. In 2023, Binance and Zhao admitted violating anti-money laundering laws, transferring money without a license, and failing to comply with sanctions in a plea agreement with the Department of Justice. The charges arose following complaints from the Treasury Department and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that Binance had “ignored its legal obligations in the interest of profit” and had failed to prevent suspicious transactions between groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Al Qaeda. Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in combined fines, although it is not immediately clear whether the company has met its payment obligations.
Binance’s relationship with Forbes
Forbes announced in February 2022 that Binance would invest $200 million in Forbes as part of a SPAC deal, although it never materialized. The proposed investment came months after Zhao and Binance dropped a defamation lawsuit against Forbes.
This text was originally published in Forbes US.
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