Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao after Binance helped build the family's stablecoin
Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao, who had pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program. Binance had helped create the code for USD1, the stablecoin of the Trump family's World Liberty Financial.
What happened
Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program; Binance agreed to pay more than $4.3 billion in penalties. He was fined $50 million and served four months. DOJ's clemency list records the pardon on October 21, 2025. Bloomberg reported that Binance helped create the initial code for USD1, which MGX, a UAE firm, used for a $2 billion investment in Binance in May 2025, an investment that could channel millions a year to the Trump family, according to Bloomberg. In September Binance hired lobbyist Charles McDowell, a friend of Donald Trump Jr.; his firm disclosed $450,000 from Binance for a month's work that included lobbying the White House on "executive relief", and McDowell and Trump Jr. were photographed together at the White House the week before the pardon. Days after the pardon, Binance began promoting USD1 sales on its U.S. site, USA Today reported. No specific dollar figure of Trump-family gain has been established, so no take figure is counted.
Why it matters
Binance helped build the Trump family's stablecoin and paid a friend of Donald Trump Jr. to lobby the White House for "executive relief"; weeks later the president pardoned its founder. Clemency scholar Dan Kobil said the ties make the pardon "look like a reward." The filings and reporting cited here do not show that the lobbying bought the pardon; Trump said "I don't know who he is," and World Liberty said it "had no role in the clemency process."
Sources
FactCheck.org (citing Bloomberg, NYT, WSJ), nbcnews.com, npr.org, justice.gov