Competing Crypto Exchanges Lobbied Against CZ's Presidential Pardon, Former Binance Chief Claims
Former Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao has revealed that competing cryptocurrency exchanges actively lobbied against his pardon, fearing it would enable Binance's re-entry into the United States market.
Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the co-founder of Binance, has stated that he held little confidence in receiving a presidential pardon from US President Donald Trump following his completion of a four-month incarceration in 2024 for breaching US anti-money-laundering regulations.
"You never know because we actually had very strong anti-lobbying from some of our perceived competitors in the US," Zhao revealed during his conversation with Ran Neuner on the Crypto Banter podcast that was published to YouTube on Saturday.
"The other crypto exchanges in the US don't want me to get a pardon," Zhao stated, suggesting their opposition stemmed from fears regarding Binance making a comeback to the US market following its withdrawal in November 2023. The company's exit came in the wake of a $4.3 billion settlement agreement between Binance and the US government concerning violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), in addition to the 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 remarked, speaking about the rival crypto exchange competitors operating in the US.
In October 2025, US President Donald Trump granted a pardon to Zhao, slightly more than a year after Zhao had finished serving his four-month prison sentence in September 2024.
In a November 2025 interview with 60 Minutes, Trump indicated he had "no idea who he is" but was informed that he had been subjected to a "witch hunt" by the previous administration under former US President Joe Biden.
The US entity Binance.US restarted its operations for qualified US users in February 2025, several months prior to Zhao receiving his pardon.
Zhao cleared of recent allegations
Zhao made these statements just months following a federal court decision in Alabama that approved a motion in March to dismiss a 2024 legal complaint that had been filed against Binance, its independent US entity Binance.US, and Zhao concerning accusations that the cryptocurrency exchange had facilitated the transfer of funds to terrorist organizations.
Regarding the future, Zhao expressed in April that his aspiration is for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to simply become an invisible component of everyday infrastructure by 2031, comparable to how the internet functions 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 shared with Scott Melker on the Wolf of All Streets podcast.