Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said he was not very confident he would be pardoned by US President Donald Trump after serving a four-month prison sentence in 2024 for violating US anti-money-laundering laws.
“You never know because we actually had very strong anti-lobbying from some of our perceived competitors in the US,” Zhao told Ran Neuner on the Crypto Banter podcast published to YouTube on Saturday.
“The other crypto exchanges in the US don't want me to get a pardon,” Zhao said, arguing they were concerned about Binance re-entering the US market after its exit in November 2023. The departure followed a $4.3 billion settlement with Binance and the US government over violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), as well as failure to register as a money transmitting business.
Binance.US resumed operations roughly four months after pardon
“I'm pretty confident it happened to some extent. I don't have concrete evidence of any of it, but I'm pretty confident there was push back,” Zhao said, referring to crypto exchange competitors in the US.
Zhao spoke to Ran Neuner on the Crypto Banter podcast. Source: Crypto Banter
US President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao in October 2025, just over a year after Zhao completed his four-month prison term in September 2024.
During an interview with 60 Minutes in November 2025, Trump said he had “no idea who he is” but was told that he was a victim of a “witch hunt” by the administration of former US President Joe Biden.
Binance.US resumed operations for eligible US users in February 2025, months before Zhao’s pardon was granted.
Zhao cleared of recent allegations
Zhao's comments came just months after a federal court in Alabama granted a motion in March to dismiss a 2024 complaint filed against Binance, its separate US entity Binance.US, and Zhao over allegations that the crypto exchange facilitated transferring funds to terrorist groups.
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Looking ahead, Zhao said in April that he hopes cryptocurrencies and blockchain will simply become an invisible part of daily infrastructure by 2031, much like the internet today.
“I'm hoping that we don't talk about crypto as crypto in five years, just like we don't talk about the internet anymore, we don't talk about TCP/IP, we don't talk about HTML, JavaScript, etc,” Zhao told Scott Melker on the Wolf of All Streets podcast.
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