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Overview
- White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt announced the decision, saying the president exercised his constitutional authority to clear Zhao.
- Zhao previously pleaded guilty to failing to implement adequate anti–money-laundering controls and served a four-month U.S. sentence in 2024.
- A 2023 agreement with U.S. authorities included a $4.3 billion settlement related to compliance failures at Binance.
- Government filings said that from 2018 to 2022 Binance processed at least 1.1 million U.S.-sanctions-violating transactions totaling about $898 million, with gaps that enabled trading by Hamas-linked actors and Iran-related users.
- Zhao resigned as CEO under the 2023 deal but retained a majority stake in Binance, as the pardon underscores the administration’s pro-crypto orientation.