Overview
- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt framed the clemency as ending a perceived Biden-era “war on cryptocurrency,” saying Trump acted within his constitutional authority.
- Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to Bank Secrecy Act violations, paid a $50 million fine, and served four months in prison as Binance accepted a $4.3 billion settlement over sweeping compliance failures.
- Prosecutors said Binance enabled more than 1.5 million trades totaling roughly $900 million in sanctions-violating activity tied to terrorist groups, drug trafficking and child sexual abuse networks.
- Reporting details months of lobbying and commercial overlap with the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial, prompting accusations of conflicts of interest and calls for oversight from Democrats including Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters.
- The pardon clears Zhao’s criminal record but does not cancel Binance’s penalties or independent oversight, and analysts report it could ease his return to U.S. operations as Binance-linked tokens saw brief gains.