CZ Surprised By Trump Pardon, Denies Business Ties With Family

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Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, says he was surprised by Donald Trump’s pardon and denies it was a result of business ties with the president or his family.

in interview In an interview with Fox News, Zhao said he had never met Trump and that he had met Trump’s son, Eric, only once at the Middle East and North Africa Bitcoin Conference in Abu Dhabi.

Zhao was not aware of his pardon status

“I didn’t know when or if it was going to happen,” he said of the pardon. “I think the lawyers filed the petition in April, and it took a few months. I didn’t know how much progress it had made.”

He said the pardon “happened one day,” describing the idea that he would be pardoned due to business ties to the Trump family as “categorically false information.”

“There is no agreement, and there have been no discussions at all,” Zhao added. “It’s that simple.”

Trump’s pardon of Czechoslovakia has had mixed reactions

Zhao pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program at Binance.

As part of the plea deal, Zhao was forced to step down from his role as CEO of Binance and was sentenced to four months in prison.

Extremely grateful for today’s pardon and for President Trump for supporting America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice.
🙏🙏🙏🙏

We will do everything we can to help make America the capital of crypto and web3 development worldwide.

(Still in flight, more posts to come.)…

— Czechoslovakia 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 23, 2025

While the cryptocurrency community celebrated Chao’s pardon and viewed it as a rollback of the anti-crypto policies of the previous Joe Biden administration, some Democratic lawmakers criticized it.

Maxine Waters accused Trump of entering into a “pay-for-play” agreement. She said it sends a “dangerous and reckless message to white-collar criminals and the entire cryptocurrency industry.”

“It tells crypto criminals that they can break the law, defraud investors, and get away with it, as long as they are also Trump benefactors,” she added.

Meanwhile, Senator Elizabeth Warren and several other Democratic lawmakers criticized the pardon in an open letter they wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

An open letter written to Bundy (Source: US Senate)

The White House calls it a “24/7 corruption machine.”

Senator Chris Murphy accused the White House of corruption.

“One week after Trump pardoned the owner of Binance (for a stunning array of crimes related to funding terrorists and sexual predators), Binance began promoting Trump’s cryptocurrencies,” Murphy said. He said On X. “The White House is a full-time, 24/7 corruption machine.”

These statements came after Binance.US Announce It will open deposits of USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial, and begin trading the USD1/USDT pair.

Binance.US denied any political motives, saying the listings were “approved for some time” through the usual review process. More than two dozen major exchanges, including Coinbase and Bybit, have also listed the tokens, she added.

“To be clear, this was a business decision on our part @BinanceUS And nothing more.

Trump says Zhao is a victim of Biden’s “witch hunt”

After the pardon, Trump said that he did not know Chao personally and that his advisers told him that the case against Chao was politically motivated.

“He had a lot of support, and they said what he did wasn’t even a crime, it wasn’t a crime,” Trump said. “He has been persecuted by the Biden administration.”

Trump also appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes and said he did not know who Czechoslovakia was.

Trump added that Zhao was targeted in a “witch hunt” carried out by the Biden administration.

He was asked if he was pardoned ‘Pay-to-play’ Given Binance’s trading interactions with her family’s World Liberty Financial company, Trump responded that he knew “very little about it,” adding that his sons are more involved in the cryptocurrency space than he is.

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