Has President Donald Trump just reshaped the crypto landscape with a single stroke of the pen?
According to the Daily Caller, on October 23, 2025, Trump pardoned Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder of Binance, the globe’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, amid swirling connections to the Trump family’s own digital currency venture.
Binance, a titan in the crypto world, has been a focal point of legal scrutiny, and Zhao’s past conviction makes this executive clemency a lightning rod for debate.
Back in 2023, Zhao admitted guilt for not implementing a robust anti-money-laundering system at Binance, leading to a stint of nearly four months behind bars.
As part of that plea deal, Binance coughed up a staggering $4.3 billion penalty and agreed to federal oversight for multiple years, while Zhao himself paid a $50 million personal fine, according to the Justice Department and Treasury. Prosecutors at the time pointed to severe oversights at Binance that allowed shady dealings tied to sanctioned entities and criminal networks, painting a troubling picture of the exchange’s operations.
The pardon follows months of intertwined interests between Zhao and the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial, a crypto project that has reportedly fueled a dramatic rise in the president’s wealth, as noted by The Wall Street Journal.
Since Trump’s election, Binance has positioned itself as a major backer of World Liberty Financial and its dollar-linked token, USD1, further blurring the lines between business and politics in the digital asset realm.
“The Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over,” declared White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, justifying the pardon. Well, that’s a bold claim, but isn’t it convenient timing when the Trump family’s crypto coffers are swelling?
This pardon could pave the way for Zhao to dive back into U.S. markets with fewer restrictions, a move that might raise eyebrows among those wary of unchecked financial innovation.
While it may alter the Justice Department’s grip on Binance, the Treasury’s separate monitoring arrangement would still need further steps to be dismantled, leaving some oversight in place for now.
Still, the optics of this decision can’t be ignored—granting clemency to a figure linked to illicit financial flows while family business interests align with the same industry feels like a tightrope walk over accountability.
For conservatives championing free markets, this pardon might signal a much-needed pushback against overzealous regulation that stifles tech frontiers like cryptocurrency, often targeted by progressive overreach.
Yet, even from a right-of-center lens, there’s a nagging need for balance—innovation shouldn’t mean a free pass for past lapses that enabled criminal activity, and public trust in these markets hinges on clear rules.
As this story unfolds, the intersection of political power, personal gain, and digital finance will test whether America can lead in crypto without sacrificing the integrity of its financial system.