Binance Coin Jumps 8% After Donald Trump Pardons Co-Founder Changpeng Zhao - What We Know

Cryprocurrency exchange Binance’s namesake token jumped 8 percent on Oct. 23, following news that co-founder Changpeng Zhao had received a pardon from US President Donald Trump. At the time of writing, at 10.35 pm. IST, the token was trading at $1,132.74, up 5.38 percent from the previous day, with market capitalization of $157.65 billion and trading volume of $5.49 billion, according to data on Coinmarketcap. ‘Continuation in War on Cryptocurrency,’ White House Says Announcing the pardon to reporters, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: “President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden administration in their war on cryptocurrency.” “In their desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry, the Biden administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,” ​​the White House said in a statement shared with AFP. Why was Changpeng Zhao in prison? In 2023, Zhao was found guilty of violating US anti-money laundering laws. Zhao, known in the crypto community as CZ, served a four-month sentence in 2024 after pleading guilty to failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering measures at Binance, according to a Bloomberg report. The guilty plea was part of a broader deal reached with the US government, which included a $4.3 billion settlement with Binance, it added. The pardon means Zhao’s criminal record will be wiped clean and could allow Binance to make a comeback in the US, according to the AFP report. Donald Trump’s connection with CZ in focus As per a Wall Street Journal report, Binance spent almost a year trying to obtain the pardon for Zhao from Donald Trump. It added that Binance was a “key backer” of the Trump family’s crypto business World Liberty Financial. Notably, before that, Donald Trump, in a controversial move, issued a blanket amnesty for people convicted of violence in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, the AFP report added. The US president also commuted the sentence of disgraced former Republican lawmaker George Santos, who was convicted of wire fraud and identity theft. (With input from Bloomberg and AFP)