White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that President Donald Trump had pardoned Zhao after he and the crypto giant pleaded guilty to violating anti-money-laundering laws in 2023. Zhao “was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency,” which “is over,” she said. (The Wall Street Journal)
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that President Donald Trump had pardoned Zhao after he and the crypto giant pleaded guilty to violating anti-money-laundering laws in 2023. Zhao “was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency,” which “is over,” she said. (The Wall Street Journal)
Talking point: Zhao has been angling for a pardon from Trump for months—and Binance has become increasingly entangled with the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture, adding to perceptions of conflicts of interest. Binance has incentivized trading in World Liberty’s stablecoin, a crypto asset pegged to the value of the dollar called USD1, and reportedly helped create and promote it. Binance has been reintroducing services to U.S. users over the past year. In July, Zhao’s family office participated in a US$500-million investment in Nasdaq-listed CEA Industries to turn it into an investment vehicle for BNB, a crypto asset that facilitates transactions on blockchains built by Binance.
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