'Crypto-friendly' Trump pardons Binance founder…Will U.S. operations resume?

Ban on operations could be lifted after 2 years

Democrats: "A reward for helping the Trump family"

Bitcoin and others rebound after weakness

U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao (photo), the founder of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, who had been sanctioned for violating anti-money laundering regulations. With this decision by President Trump, who has maintained a pro-cryptocurrency stance, Binance now has a path to resume U.S. operations that were suspended after its 2023 guilty plea. However, it has become controversial that Binance supported the Trump family's cryptocurrency company ahead of the pardon.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 23rd (local time), President Trump signed the pardon for Changpeng Zhao the previous day. Trump is reported to have recently told aides that he sympathized with claims that Zhao and related individuals were being politically persecuted. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) withdrew its lawsuit against Binance and Changpeng Zhao in May. At the time, U.S. media interpreted this as "a sign that a second Trump administration intends to cooperate with the cryptocurrency industry."

This pardon is expected to open a path for Binance, which has been barred from operating in the U.S. since its 2023 guilty plea, to return to the U.S. In June 2023, the SEC filed 13 counts of securities law violations against Changpeng Zhao and Binance, and in November of that year the U.S. Department of Justice also indicted Zhao and Binance. At that time, Zhao pleaded guilty, stepped down as chief executive officer (CEO), and agreed to pay a fine of $4.3 billion (about 6.2 trillion won), avoiding imprisonment.

There are allegations that this pardon is a reward for Zhao having assisted a cryptocurrency firm owned by the Trump family for several months. Binance recently secured a $2 billion investment from the UAE sovereign wealth fund MGX, and the investment was made entirely in the stablecoin 'USD1' issued by the cryptocurrency company 'World Liberty' founded by the Trump family. World Liberty is structured so that 75% of the profits accrue to the Trump family.

The Democrats criticized the pardon as "an act of corruption." But White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing that "the president exercised the pardon authority granted by the Constitution." She added, "This case was an overzealous prosecution by the Biden administration, and even the presiding judge acknowledged that a harsh sentence was sought against this individual (Zhao)." She said, "President Trump sought to correct the Biden administration's improper abuse of power." Leavitt also added, "There is nothing more corrupt than President Biden pardoning his son and many associates as he left office."

News of the Binance founder's pardon prompted a rebound in the cryptocurrency market, which had been weak due to U.S.-China trade tensions and concerns over U.S. regional bank failures. According to CoinMarketCap, as of 2 p.m. KST on the 24th, Bitcoin was up 2% from 24 hours earlier, at $111,119.9. It recovered sharply from the level it had fallen to the day before, in the $107,000 range.

Reporter Im Dayeon allopen@hankyung.com