President Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, this week in a move the White House framed as a response to what it called the Biden administration’s “war on cryptocurrency.”
Zhao, also known as “CZ”, pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering and agreed to step down as the CEO of Binance as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the Justice Department in 2023. He served four months in prison.