The CZ pardon: clemency for the family firm's indispensable business partner

Editor's note: an official record establishes the pardon, and reporting documents Binance's business ties to the family's crypto venture, but no official record establishes that return.

Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to Bank Secrecy Act violations - running Binance without money-laundering controls, which Treasury said let funds flow 'to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers' - paid a $50 million personal fine, resigned as CEO, and served four months. Fresh out of prison in late 2024, per 60 Minutes, his company donated the software that let the barely staffed World Liberty Financial launch its stablecoin; a source said without Zhao 'the technology doesn't exist.' Bloomberg confirmed Binance wrote USD1's foundational code, and the WSJ reported Binance was quietly administering WLF's trading platform.

The month after that launch help, Zhao applied for a pardon. Weeks later came the deal that made WLF: Abu Dhabi's MGX put $2 billion into Binance denominated in USD1 - a five-week-old coin - and Binance left the $2 billion parked there, generating an estimated $80 million a year for the family and its partners. One source told 60 Minutes the currency choice 'wasn't strange. It was nuts'; Binance ended up holding about 87% of all USD1. Binance spent $800,000 lobbying on clemency and policy; in October 2025, lobbyist Ches McDowell - introduced by Don Jr. - discussed the pardon with Trump directly.

Trump signed the full and unconditional pardon on October 21, 2025; it surfaced only when it leaked two days later. Asked why on 60 Minutes, Trump answered: 'Okay, are you ready? I don't know who he is... I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.' The pardon clears CZ's felony record and, analysts said, his path back to running Binance in the US. Warren, Durbin and Blumenthal had warned in May that the circumstances 'demand the highest levels of scrutiny'; former Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer said on air: 'This is absolutely not justice. This is corruption.'