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23 Oct 2025
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23 Oct 2025
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US President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao.
Zhao created the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and served prison time after failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.
He had asked Trump for a pardon previously.
Zhao has deep ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that the Republican president and his sons Eric and Donald Jnr launched in September.
Mr Trump’s most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than 57 million dollars (£42.7 million) last year from World Liberty Financial, which has launched USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the US dollar.
World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates would be using two billion dollars’ worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance.
Zhao also has publicly said that he had asked Mr Trump for a pardon that could nullify his conviction.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Thursday that the Biden administration prosecuted Zhao out of a “desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry”.
She said there were “no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims”, though Zhao had pleaded guilty in November to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering programme.
“I failed here,” Zhao told the court last year.
“I deeply regret my failure, and I am sorry.”
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