Changpeng Zhao

Trump’s October 2025 pardon shifted coverage of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao from his 2023 guilty plea and 2024 prison sentence toward political and regulatory scrutiny.

Who they are

Changpeng Zhao, widely identified in the coverage as CZ, is Binance’s founder and former CEO, appearing as the individual most closely tied to the exchange’s regulatory, criminal and market-moving controversies. Stories connect him to Binance’s interactions with the DOJ and SEC, the failed FTX rescue attempt, and more recently Trump-linked World Liberty Financial.

The recent arc

The coverage’s all-time high came in late 2022, when Zhao’s actions figured prominently in the FTX crisis, including Binance’s non-binding proposal to acquire FTX.com after announcing plans to sell its remaining FTT holdings. The story then moved decisively from crypto-market confrontation to U.S. enforcement: Binance and Zhao pleaded guilty in the DOJ’s $4.3 billion settlement in November 2023, and a judge sentenced Zhao to four months in prison in May 2024.

The most sustained recent resurgence was in 2025’s fourth quarter, driven by President Trump’s pardon of Zhao and reporting that linked the pardon to Zhao’s efforts around the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial. In 2026, coverage has broadened into the consequences of that return: Zhao attended a World Liberty Financial event at Mar-a-Lago with Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong, Binance accounts held 85% of USD1’s reported January circulation, and nearly 1,700 UK investors sued Binance and Zhao over alleged unauthorized sales of risky derivatives. Zhao has also publicly disputed the handling of Binance’s MiCA application in Greece.

The tension

Coverage circles the collision between Zhao’s renewed proximity to politically connected crypto initiatives and the unresolved regulatory liabilities attached to Binance. The Trump pardon and the World Liberty Financial relationship have made that contrast especially sharp, while the DOJ and SEC cases, FTX’s effort to claw back nearly $1.8 billion from Binance and Zhao, the UK investor suit, and the Greece MiCA dispute keep enforcement and compliance at the center of the narrative.

Why it matters

Zhao’s arc is a test of whether a crypto founder can move from criminal enforcement and incarceration back into influence over the industry’s institutional and political infrastructure. If Binance’s links to initiatives such as USD1 persist, scrutiny may increasingly focus not only on the exchange’s legacy conduct but also on how regulatory access, stablecoin distribution and political relationships intersect; the pending disputes show that this shift is not a clean resolution.

Related: Binance · Trump · SEC · FTX · DOJ · Binance and CZ plead guilty to federal charges as part of a $4.3B sett