(MENAFN) US President Donald Trump has granted a full pardon to Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who had previously been convicted for facilitating money laundering at the cryptocurrency exchange, the White House confirmed Thursday.

Zhao and Binance had pleaded guilty in November 2023 to violating the US Bank Secrecy Act, acknowledging failures in enforcing anti-money-laundering measures. Prosecutors reported the exchange neglected to report over 100,000 suspicious transactions, some linked to terrorism and child exploitation. As a result, Binance was barred from US operations and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines. Zhao resigned as CEO, paid $50 million, and was sentenced to four months in prison.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Trump had “exercised his constitutional authority” by pardoning Zhao, asserting he had been “egregiously oversentenced” by the administration of former President Joe Biden “in their war on cryptocurrency.”

The pardon follows months of lobbying by Binance and comes amid the company’s growing connections with Trump. Once skeptical of cryptocurrency, the president pledged last year to make the US the “crypto capital of the world.” Trump’s family has expanded its ties to the sector through investments and ventures. Earlier this year, Binance supported World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture co-founded by Trump and his sons, which has raised roughly $550 million in token sales since 2024, by accepting its USD1 stablecoin.

Analysts suggest the pardon could allow Binance to resume US operations. However, critics argue the move may favor a figure whose company has financially benefited the Trump family. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Senate Banking Committee’s ranking member, denounced the decision as “corruption” and called on Congress to intervene.

Observers have long warned of dangerous overlaps between Trump’s crypto ventures and political influence. In August, the New York Times accused him of leveraging his office to promote personal cryptocurrency projects, including a Solana-based ‘TRUMP’ token launched earlier this year.

Defending the pardon, Trump, who filed a $15 billion defamation suit against the New York Times last month, told reporters he acted “at the request of a lot of very good people.” On X, Zhao expressed gratitude, pledging to “do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto.”

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