US President Donald Trump has granted a pardon to Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, a White House official confirmed today (Thursday), Reuters reported.

The pardon allows Zhao to return to the business he created. He has served a four-month prison sentence as ordered by a US judge. It remains unclear whether Zhao will actually return to Binance or take a different path in the crypto industry.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump had "exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency."

Binance Ends Multi-Year Misconduct Investigation

Zhao, who founded Binance in 2017, previously stepped down as chief executive when the company reached a $4.3 billion settlement with US authorities. The settlement concluded a multi-year investigation into alleged misconduct at Binance, then the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

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Executives Receive Pardons Under Trump Administration

This decision is part of a broader pattern of pardons issued by Trump to executives convicted of crimes. Earlier in 2025, he pardoned the founders of crypto exchange BitMEX over anti-money laundering violations and the founder of Nikola, who had been convicted of fraud. He also commuted the sentence of a former executive of the now-defunct media company Ozy Media.

Source: Finance Magnates