President Donald Trump last week signed a pardon for Changpeng Zhao, who founded the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison after reaching a deal with the U.S. Justice Department during the Biden administration. (The former Binance CEO pleaded guilty to “failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program.”)
[NOTE: Binance, the company, “agreed to pay over $4 billion to resolve the Justice Department’s investigation into violations related to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), failure to register as a money transmitting business, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA),” according the DOJ.]
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) responded on social media to Trump’s pardon of Zhao, writing: “One week after Trump pardoned Binance’s owner (for a stunning array of crimes related to terrorist and sex predator financing), Binance starts promoting Trump crypto. The White House is a full time, 24/7 corruption machine.”
[Note: The Wall Street Journal reported in August that Binance has administered many of the Trump family’s crypto projects via the Trump-owned company World Liberty Financial, “and generated more than $4 billion for the family” on a crypto exchange that Binance administers.]
We aren’t dumb. Your company launched Trump’s corrupt crypto coin. You greased the wheels of the massively corrupt UAE “trade secrets for cash” deal. You basically did whatever crooked thing Trump asked.
And then, voila – your billionaire owner gets a pardon!
C’mon. https://t.co/NQk7aWMwmn
— Chris Murphy
(@ChrisMurphyCT) October 31, 2025
Responding to the Senator’s accusation, Binance wrote to Murphy saying: “We conduct comprehensive due diligence and legal review before listing any asset on @BinanceUS, whether it’s a stablecoin, a new ecosystem project, or a meme token. Not only are USD1 and WLFI already listed on 20+ major exchanges, including U.S. platforms @coinbase, @RobinhoodApp, and @krakenfx, but these assets have both been approved for some time by our listing committee in its ordinary course of business. To be clear, this was a business decision on the part of @BinanceUS and nothing more. It’s unfortunate that even routine business decisions are now unfairly politicized by our elected officials.”
Murphy replied: “We aren’t dumb. Your company launched Trump’s corrupt crypto coin. You greased the wheels of the massively corrupt UAE ‘trade secrets for cash’ deal. You basically did whatever crooked thing Trump asked. And then, voila – your billionaire owner gets a pardon! C’mon.”
Deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice.
Will do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto and advance web3 worldwide.
(Still in flight, more posts to come.)…
— CZ
BNB (@cz_binance) October 23, 2025
