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Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, aka CZ, said he was surprised by Donald Trump’s pardon and denied it was the result of business ties to the president or his family.
In a interview With Fox News, Zhao said he has never met Trump and that he only met Trump’s son Eric once at the Bitcoin Middle East and North Africa conference in Abu Dhabi.
Zhao was unaware of the status of his pardon
“I didn’t know when or if it was going to happen,” he said of the pardon. “I believe my lawyers submitted the petition in April, and it took a few months. I didn’t know the progress.”
The pardon “came one day,” he said, calling the idea that he was pardoned because of his business ties to the Trump family “categorically false information.”
“There is no agreement, there have never been any discussions,” Zhao added. “It’s that simple.”
Trump’s CZ pardon sparked mixed reactions
Zhao pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program at Binance.
As part of a plea deal, Zhao had to resign as CEO of Binance and was sentenced to four months in prison.
Deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for delivering on America’s commitment to fairness, innovation and justice.
🙏🙏🙏🙏We will do everything we can to help make America the crypto capital and advance Web3 around the world.
(Still in flight, more articles to come.)…
– CZ 🔶BNB (@cz_binance) October 23, 2025
While the crypto community celebrated Zhao’s pardon and saw it as a reversal of the former Joe Biden administration’s anti-crypto policies, some Democratic lawmakers criticized it.
Maxine Waters accused Trump of entering into a “pay-to-play” deal. This sends a “dangerous and reckless message to white-collar criminals and the entire cryptocurrency industry,” she said.
“This tells crypto criminals that they can break the law, defraud investors and get away with it, as long as they are also Trump’s benefactors,” she added.
Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and several other Democratic lawmakers criticized the pardon in an open letter they wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Open letter written to Bondi (Source: US Senate)
White House described as ’24/7 corruption machine’
Senator Chris Murphy has accused the White House of corruption.
“A week after Trump pardoned Binance owner (for a stunning array of crimes related to terrorist financing and sexual predators), Binance begins promoting Trump crypto,” Murphy said on X. “The White House is a full-time, 24/7 corruption machine. »
The remarks came after Binance.US announcement he would open deposits for $1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial, and begin trading a USD1/USDT pair.
Binance.US denied any political motivation, saying the listings had been “approved for some time” through its usual review process. He added that more than twenty major exchanges, including Coinbase and Bybit, have also listed the tokens.
»To be clear, this was a business decision on the part of @BinanceUS and nothing more,” he said.
Trump said Zhao was victim of a ‘Biden witch hunt’
After the pardon, Trump said he did not know Zhao personally and that his advisers had told him that the prosecution of Zhao was politically motivated.
“He had a lot of support, and they said what he did wasn’t even a crime, it wasn’t a crime,” Trump said. “He was persecuted by the Biden administration.”
Trump also appeared on the CBS show 60 Minutes and said he didn’t know who CZ was.
Trump added that Zhao had been the target of a “witch hunt” by the Biden administration.
He was asked if grace was “pay to play” given Binance’s business interactions with family firm World Liberty Financial, Trump responded that he knows “very little,” adding that his sons are more involved in the crypto space than he is.
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