Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao whose exchange settled a $2B MGX deal via Trump family stablecoin
President Trump granted Binance founder Changpeng Zhao a full and unconditional pardon on October 21, 2025, clearing a 2023 guilty plea for failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program as Binance CEO. Zhao's company had built a documented financial relationship with the Trump family's World Liberty Financial crypto venture in 2025, including a $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi's MGX settled through WLFI's USD1 stablecoin, and a separate stablecoin listing that coincided with the SEC dropping its lawsuit against Binance.
Part of: World Liberty Financial Self-Dealing
Actors
On October 21, 2025, President Trump granted Binance founder Changpeng Zhao a full and unconditional pardon in United States v. Zhao (23CR00179RAJ-001), per the Department of Justice's Executive Grant of Clemency. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt publicly confirmed the pardon two days later. Zhao had pleaded guilty in 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program as Binance's chief executive, part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the Department of Justice, and served a four-month federal prison sentence in 2024.
Zhao and Binance built a documented financial relationship with the Trump family's World Liberty Financial (WLFI) crypto venture during 2025. In May 2025, Binance listed WLFI's USD1 stablecoin, and the SEC dropped its long-running lawsuit against Binance within days of that listing. Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX's $2 billion investment in Binance, first announced in March 2025, was settled through USD1 rather than a rival stablecoin — a choice WLFI co-founder Zach Witkoff announced following a meeting between Zhao and WLFI's founders in Abu Dhabi. Trump's own 2025 financial disclosure reported more than $57 million in personal earnings from World Liberty Financial in 2024.
Why we recorded this
Pardons for allies or self erode the norm that clemency serves justice, not personal or family financial interest. Trump granted a full pardon to Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, whose exchange settled a $2 billion Abu Dhabi investment through the Trump family's own World Liberty Financial stablecoin, from which Trump personally reported over $57 million in 2024 earnings. Using the pardon power to benefit a business partner of the president's private financial interests blurs the line between the presidency and personal profit, undermining the norm that executive clemency operates independent of the president's own enrichment.
Sources
- Executive Grant of Clemency — Changpeng Zhao — U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Pardon Attorney primary accessed July 9, 2026
- Trump Pardons Billionaire Binance Founder Zhao — Forbes secondary accessed July 9, 2026
- Trump pardons convicted Binance founder Changpeng Zhao — NBC News secondary accessed July 9, 2026
- Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao two years after the crypto billionaire's guilty plea — Fortune secondary accessed July 9, 2026
See also
- DOJ order bars IRS from auditing Trump, his family, and their businesses for prior tax returns
- Trump commutes George Santos sentence after three months of seven-year wire fraud term
- Trump demanded DOJ pay him $230 million in compensation for federal investigations; claim routed to his former defense attorney
- Trump and Lutnick sons held Kaz Resources stake as their fathers brokered a $1.6B U.S.-backed Kazakhstan tungsten deal
- Trump pardoned Joseph Schwartz, nursing-home chain owner convicted in $39M tax fraud, after $960,000 lobbying push
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