The president granted a full pardon to Changpeng Zhao, reversing one of the most high-profile crypto convictions in US history.
US President Donald Trump has issued a full pardon to Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former chief executive of Binance.
Zhao, widely known as “CZ,” pleaded guilty in 2023 to violations of U.S. anti-money-laundering laws and was serving a four-month prison sentence following a $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.
The pardon removes all remaining legal penalties against Zhao, who had stepped down from Binance as part of the plea deal, according to the report.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the WSJ that Trump had “exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency.
“The Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over.”
Zhao, a Canadian citizen born in China, founded Binance in 2017 and built it into the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume. His conviction stemmed from failures to implement anti-money-laundering controls and violations of U.S. sanctions.
This is a developing story.
This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor Michael McSweeney before publication.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
- 0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.
- Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
- Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
- The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
- Lightspeed: All things Solana.
- Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.
Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.
Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave
Tues – Thurs, March 24 – 26, 2026
Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.
Research
Prediction markets are entering a structural growth phase, with sports now accounting for the majority of trading volume. Sire and Score provide a new way to access this expanding market. Sire leverages Score’s AI-driven models to identify mispriced odds and generate uncorrelated yield opportunities. The upcoming vault products also offer indirect exposure to potential Polymarket and Kalshi airdrops. Together, they position sports as a new frontier for systematic alpha generation onchain.
news
Breaking headlines across our core coverage categories.
Q3 2025 marked the quarter where Raydium fully grew into its multi-product identity
As AI reshapes the demand for infrastructure, Bitcoin miners are reinventing themselves as energy-first compute providers
As crypto-centric firms file for array of products, the world’s largest asset manager seeks to grow AUM in existing funds
The payments platform expands into stablecoin infrastructure with an all-stock acquisition of Beam, signaling deeper fintech-crypto integration
The acquisition combines FalconX’s institutional brokerage network with 21Shares’ ETF platform, signaling a new phase in digital asset integration
From The DAO to Mango Markets, a documentary puts the spotlight on whether immutability should trump intent
