Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has opened up about his 2024 prison sentence and the pardon he later received, arguing the Biden administration used his case to send a message to the crypto industry.
In a Fox Business interview with Charlie Gasparino, CZ said the U.S. government was “openly declaring war on crypto,” creating a “very hostile environment” and singling out major market players to “make an example” of them. Binance itself pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2023 and agreed to pay more than $4 billion to resolve a Department of Justice probe. That same year, Zhao stepped down as CEO after pleading guilty to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) violations and accepting a $50 million penalty.
Zhao was sentenced in April 2024 to four months behind bars and served from June through September 2024. He told interviewers he had expected a lighter outcome — pointing out his case involved a single Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) violation, with “no money‑laundering charges, no fraud, [and] no victims.” Historically, he said, people charged with that lone offense often receive deferred prosecution agreements rather than prison time. In a separate interview with Scott Melker, CZ said he had not expected to go to jail and had anticipated a sentence more comparable to Arthur Hayes’s home confinement.
Zhao also explained why he voluntarily returned to the U.S. to plead guilty: he feared that failing to cooperate would harm Binance, holders of its native token BNB, and the broader crypto ecosystem.
On October 23, 2025, the White House announced President Donald Trump had granted Zhao a presidential pardon, saying Trump “exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency.” The pardon’s timing, Zhao said, surprised him; while he had expected clemency after Trump’s earlier pardons of Ross Ulbricht and Arthur Hayes, he described the pardon process as a “black box” — you submit a petition and wait without knowing the timeline.
The pardon drew sharp criticism from members of Congress, who questioned the rationale and flagged potential conflicts of interest. Zhao and Trump both denied any impropriety: CZ rejected claims he paid for the pardon and said he has “no business relationship” with Trump, the first family, or their companies. Trump, meanwhile, denied knowing Zhao personally and framed the case as part of a broader “witch hunt” against crypto by the prior administration, calling Zhao a “victim of weaponization.”
The episode highlights continuing tensions between U.S. politics and the crypto sector — from aggressive enforcement actions and multibillion-dollar settlements to high-profile legal fights and presidential clemency — and underscores how regulatory and political winds can rapidly reshape the industry’s landscape.
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