Written by: Gyroscope Finance
Last week, a piece of news caused a sensation in the industry.
On October 22, President Trump suddenly signed a pardon order for CZ at the White House, which was disclosed to the public the following day. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt issued a statement saying: "The President has exercised his constitutional power to pardon Mr. CZ, who was prosecuted during the Biden administration's war on cryptocurrency. The Biden administration's war on cryptocurrency is over."
Although there had been rumors as early as March this year that CZ was applying for a pardon, now that the news has settled, it has still sparked a strong reaction in the market. With the pardon of arguably the most influential Chinese figure in the crypto space, BNB surged in response, and BTC and ETH also saw rare simultaneous increases. The narrative of Binance returning to the US has resurfaced.
From paying a huge fine and being imprisoned to now being pardoned and becoming a guest of presidents from multiple countries, CZ's tortuous experience has added another legendary story to the crypto world.
Rewinding to November 2023, Binance reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) regarding investigations into Binance's historical registration, compliance, and sanctions issues.
CZ ultimately admitted to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and the Commodity Exchange Act by conducting unlicensed money transfer business, conspiracy charges, and prohibited transactions. He paid a sky-high fine of $4.368 billion as the price for his freedom, setting the largest fine in FinCEN's history.
At the time, the prevailing market view was that CZ, as the Chinese head of the world's largest exchange, was subjected to political persecution. There was indeed evidence of persecution: CZ's initial expected sentence was 18 months, which the DOJ later sought to extend to 3 years. However, after pleading guilty and amid a turbulent public opinion, in April 2024, the federal court in Seattle sentenced CZ to 4 months in prison. According to CZ's recollection, on the day he was imprisoned, he experienced a humiliating strip search, and his first cellmate was even a double murderer. He described this period of incarceration as "the most difficult time of my life."
In September 2024, CZ was released after serving his sentence. Clearly, this prison experience brought CZ much more than just pain; more profoundly, it made him realize that while crypto is borderless, the law is not. Even the crypto industry must learn to survive in the cracks of politics. At the same time, as the leader of the largest crypto trading platform, CZ's Chinese identity is quite delicate for the US, carrying both political implications and the indelible mark of being "not one of us," even though, from a nationality perspective, CZ is a thorough Canadian. Against this backdrop, finding a powerful "tree for shade" becomes especially important.
Perhaps for this reason, after his release in September, CZ frequently traveled to the UAE and Hong Kong, uncharacteristically meeting with various regulators and beginning to rebuild his political identity from scratch. After the November election, with Trump's rise to power, the crypto industry entered a new era, and both Binance and CZ seemed to find new opportunities.
In March 2025, Binance officially announced it had received a $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi's sovereign fund MGX, acquiring a 5% stake. Given Binance's annual revenue exceeding $10 billion, this can only be described as "making friends." More subtly, the settlement amount for this $2 billion deal was USD1, which happens to be the stablecoin launched by the Trump family project WLFI. Shortly after, CZ posted a photo with WLFI co-founder Zach Witkoff on social media, and two weeks later, USD1 was officially launched on BNB Chain, receiving widespread promotion on Binance's chain.
In April, CZ formally submitted a presidential pardon application to the Trump administration. The turning point came in September, when CZ changed his X account bio from "ex-@binance" to "@binance," fueling market speculation about his return. Capital was the first to sense the change: on October 22, US-compliant trading platforms Coinbase and Robinhood successively opened BNB trading. Mainstream finance no longer shied away from Binance, and BNB successfully entered the US financial market.
Finally, on October 23 this year, Trump signed an executive pardon order, overturning CZ's criminal conviction. To briefly introduce the concept of a pardon: at the 1787 US Constitutional Convention, the president was granted the power to pardon or commute sentences in specific cases. Pardoned individuals no longer bear a federal criminal record, and penalties may be terminated or lifted. This power is confirmed in Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution: except in cases of impeachment, the president can grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against federal law. In theory, the scope of the presidential pardon is very broad—except for those impeached by Congress, anyone violating federal law can be pardoned. To date, Trump has signed over 40 pardons involving about 237 people, with CZ being one of them.
In terms of practical effect, since CZ had already served his sentence and paid his fine, the pardon does not reduce any actual penalty, nor does it mean he can recover the fines previously paid. Thus, the symbolic significance of the pardon far outweighs its practical impact. Through the pardon, CZ's criminal record can be erased, restoring his clean reputation and enabling him to climb higher on the political and resource stage. In a September interview with Caixin this year, CZ also mentioned he would devote more energy to the venture capital firm YZi Labs and had already been invited to serve as an official crypto industry advisor to several governments. A clean record will obviously help his potential political career go further. Just three days ago, CZ and Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov jointly attended the second on-site meeting of the National Blockchain and Crypto Committee.
On the other hand, the previous ruling stipulated that CZ could not participate in Binance's management or decision-making for three years after his release, and during this period, Binance must be supervised by an independent compliance officer who reports directly to the US Department of Justice. In other words, every move Binance makes is under the DOJ's watchful eye. Although compliance supervision cannot be pardoned, the restriction on direct management participation may be lifted, and CZ may return to helm Binance. In fact, given the current controversies surrounding Binance, the market's attitude toward current CEO Richard Teng is hardly friendly. Furthermore, Binance may return to the US, opening the door to two-way liquidity, which would have a huge impact on the current landscape of US crypto exchanges.
For the industry, the return of the "boss" is undoubtedly a positive sign, not only reaffirming Trump's supportive stance toward the crypto industry but also boosting confidence in the sector. After the news broke, BNB surged 7%, returning above $1,100, and also drove mainstream coins higher—bitcoin returned to $110,000, and ethereum shot up to $4,000. The chain reaction quickly spread: first, MEME coins on Binance saw collective short-term gains, with Binance Life, which had performed well during the National Day holiday, rising from $0.23 to $0.28, an increase of over 20%. Second, listed companies holding BNB as treasury assets benefited, with BNB Network Company and Nano Labs both seeing gains. Even Trump's WLFI benefited significantly, successfully reaching $0.14, and WLFI treasury-listed company ALT5 Sigma24 rose over 13% in 24 hours.
Of course, nothing can make everyone happy, and Trump's opponents are particularly dissatisfied with this. Reviewing the entire timeline—from frequent meetings with the UAE to Abu Dhabi's investment, from photos with WLFI co-founders to stablecoin support, from applying for a pardon to successfully receiving it—it's clear there is a subtle thread linking CZ to the political sphere. Simply put, it was by boarding Trump's "big ship" that CZ was able to regain his clean status.
Interestingly, Trump responded to the reason for the pardon by saying, "I don't know him, but many people say he is innocent and was persecuted by the Biden administration." Whether this was a public pretense for risk avoidance is unclear. Even if true, it only shows that CZ is very close to people around the president, rather than Trump himself being "completely unfamiliar" with him. Coincidentally, right after the pardon, Trump stated in a White House speech that due to a military pay gap caused by a government shutdown by the Democrats, a "friend who wishes to remain anonymous and is a great person" generously sent a $130 million check to help. This led to rumors in the market that this friend might be CZ, with some believing that it was political donations that enabled CZ to receive the pardon.
Whether the military pay story is true is hard to tell, but lobbying has long been a Wall Street tradition. According to a report by well-known political media Politico, based on disclosures from lobbying firm Checkmate Government Relations, Binance hired Ches McDowell, a friend of Donald Trump Jr., at the end of September to lobby the White House and Treasury Department on financial policy and "administrative relief" issues, paying $450,000 per month. Crypto lawyer Teresa Goody Guillén also disclosed that she received a total of $290,000 in lobbying fees from Binance and CZ this year.
In fact, given Trump's businessman nature, it's easy to understand that CZ's pardon must have involved a great deal of money and resource bargaining. On this point, political opponents quickly launched attacks on Trump, accusing him of disregarding laws and regulations and treating pardons as a naked exchange of interests.
According to AXIOS, Senate Democrats are taking action to formally condemn Trump's decision to pardon CZ. Some Senate Republicans have also criticized the pardon, while Democrats are trying to use this to foster rare bipartisan cooperation in expressing opposition to the White House's decision. The Democrats' attacks on Trump are nothing new, and it's unlikely this will have any real impact.
Returning to the main topic, CZ's compliance journey, though temporarily concluded, is far from over. Although he has received preferential treatment from the current administration, taking sides also carries huge risks. The complex political life of an overseas Chinese entrepreneur is just beginning, which is why they must "play both sides and dance with long sleeves."
After his release, CZ quickly expressed his gratitude to Trump, stating that he would "do his utmost to help the US become the capital of cryptocurrency and promote the development of Web3 globally."
The focus of his remarks is the US, which means CZ himself is well aware that, regardless of how he returns, the greatest beneficiary must and will be the US.
