CZ Says US Rivals Lobbied Against His Presidential Pardon

Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao said US crypto exchanges lobbied against his presidential pardon. He made the claim on the Crypto Banter podcast published May 9. According to Zhao, rivals had one main fear: that Binance would re-enter the US market and become a direct competitor for their clients again.

What CZ Said on the Podcast

On the Crypto Banter podcast, host Ran Neuner asked Zhao about the pardon process. The Binance founder said he was not confident about a positive outcome, and the reason was organized opposition from competitors. "The other crypto exchanges in the US don't want me to get a pardon," Zhao stated.

He named no specific companies. The logic is clear: when Binance left the US market in November 2023 following federal charges, the niche shifted to local platforms. The return of the world's largest crypto exchange would mean direct competition for clients. Competitors, Zhao believes, did everything they could to prevent it.

"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 pushback."

- Changpeng Zhao, Binance founder, Crypto Banter podcast, May 9, 2026

The podcast aired Saturday, and by Sunday the pardon segment was circulating widely in crypto media.

The $4.3 Billion Settlement and Prison Sentence

In November 2023, Binance signed a $4.3 billion agreement with the US Department of Justice and exited the American market. The platform faced three charges: violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and failure to register as a money services business.

Zhao personally signed a guilty plea and received a real sentence. Four months of imprisonment ended in September 2024. The case set a precedent: the founder and former CEO of one of the industry's largest companies actually served time in a federal prison. Before this, similar cases typically resolved through agreements that avoided actual incarceration.

The $4.3 billion settlement remains the largest of its kind in crypto industry history.

Trump's Pardon and the Binance.US Comeback

President Donald Trump officially pardoned Zhao in October 2025, more than a year after the prison term ended. In a CBS 60 Minutes interview in November that year, Trump said he "had no idea who he is" but was told the case was a "witch hunt" by the Biden administration.

Binance.US resumed operations for US users as early as February 2025. The platform reopened access to trading Bitcoin and other assets several months before the pardon became an official presidential decision.

The US crypto market changed significantly during Binance's two-year absence. Competitors strengthened their positions, attracted institutional clients, and expanded product offerings. Binance.US is recovering market share gradually, and the first half of 2026 has been a time of effective relaunch for the platform.

Alabama Court Dismissed the Final Case Against Zhao

In March 2026, a federal court in Alabama granted the defendants' motion and dismissed a case filed in 2024. The lawsuit alleged that Binance, Binance.US, and Zhao directly facilitated the transfer of funds to terrorist organizations through inadequate transaction monitoring. The court rejected all claims and found the plaintiffs' arguments insufficient.

For Zhao, this decision closed the last active legal front in the US. Since then, he has increasingly focused on long-term themes. In April 2026, the Binance founder said he hopes crypto will become as invisible a part of infrastructure as TCP/IP or HTTP by 2031. "We don't talk about the internet every day - and we don't have to talk about crypto the same way," he said.