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Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, aka CZ, says he was stunned by Donald Trump’s pardon and denied it was a results of enterprise ties with the President or his household.
In an interview with Fox Information, Zhao mentioned that he has by no means met with Trump and that he has solely met Trump’s son, Eric, as soon as on the Bitcoin Center East and North Africa convention in Abu Dhabi.
Zhao Was Unaware Of The Standing Of His Pardon
“I didn’t know when or if it was going to occur,” he mentioned of the pardon. “I imagine my attorneys submitted the petition in April, and it took just a few months. I didn’t know the progress.”
The pardon simply “occurred at some point,” he mentioned, calling the notion he was pardoned due to enterprise hyperlinks with the Trump household ”categorically false info.”
”There’s no deal, there has by no means been any discussions,” Zhao added. ”It’s so simple as that.”
Trump’s CZ Pardon Had Blended Reactions
Zhao pleaded responsible to violating the Financial institution Secrecy Act by failing to keep up an efficient anti-money laundering (AML) program at Binance.
As a part of a plea deal, Zhao needed to step down from his function as Binance’s CEO and was sentenced to 4 months in jail.
Deeply grateful for at the moment’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s dedication to equity, innovation, and justice.
🙏🙏🙏🙏Will do the whole lot we are able to to assist make America the Capital of Crypto and advance web3 worldwide.
(Nonetheless in flight, extra posts to come back.)…
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 23, 2025
Whereas the crypto neighborhood celebrated Zhao’s pardon and noticed it as a reversal of the anti-crypto insurance policies of the previous Joe Biden administration, some Democratic lawmakers criticized it.
Maxine Waters accused Trump of getting into right into a “pay-to-play” settlement. It sends a ”harmful and reckless message to white-collar criminals and the complete cryptocurrency trade” she mentioned.
”It’s telling crypto criminals that they’ll break the regulation, defraud traders, and get away with it, so long as they’re additionally Trump’s benefactors,” she added.
In the meantime, Senator Elizabeth Warren and several other different democratic lawmakers slammed the pardon in an open letter they penned to legal professional basic Pam Bondi.
Open letter penned to Bondi (Supply: US Senate)
White Home Referred to as ’24/7 Corruption Machine’
Senator Chris Murphy accused the White Home of corruption.
“One week after Trump pardoned Binance’s proprietor (for a shocking array of crimes associated to terrorist and intercourse predator financing), Binance begins selling Trump crypto,” Murphy mentioned on X. ”The White Home is a full time, 24/7 corruption machine.”
The remarks got here after Binance.US introduced it might open deposits for USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by the Trump household’s World Liberty Monetary, and commenced buying and selling a USD1/USDT pair.
Binance.US denied any political motive, saying the listings had been “authorized for a while” via its typical assessment course of. It added that greater than twenty main exchanges, together with Coinbase and Bybit, have additionally listed the tokens.
”To be clear, this was a enterprise choice on the a part of @BinanceUS and nothing extra,” it mentioned.
Trump Mentioned Zhao Sufferer Of A “Biden Witch Hunt”
Following the pardon, Trump mentioned that he doesn’t know Zhao personally and that his advisors had informed him that the case towards Zhao was politically motivated.
“He had loads of help, they usually mentioned that what he did will not be even against the law, it wasn’t against the law,” Trump mentioned. ”He was persecuted by the Biden administration.”
Trump additionally appeared on the CBS present 60 Minutes and mentioned he doesn’t know who who CZ is.
Trump added that Zhao was focused in a “witch hunt” carried out by the Biden administration.
Requested whether or not the pardon was “pay to play” given Binance’s enterprise interactions with household’s World Liberty Monetary, Trump responded that he is aware of “little or no about it,” including that his sons are extra concerned within the crypto area than he’s.
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