The crypto exchange Binance is dominating the headlines after a stunning presidential pardon for its founder, raising new questions about its power and political influence.
The crypto world is still processing the biggest “October surprise” in its history.
Just last week, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, known as “CZ,” received a full presidential pardon. This is the same man who pleaded guilty to massive anti-money laundering failures in 2023.
He served a four-month prison sentence. The crypto exchange Binance paid a historic $4.3 billion fine. Most of us in the financial world believed that was the end of the story.
We were wrong.
This pardon is a stunning reversal. However, it’s the timing and the context that are raising so many eyebrows in Washington and on Wall Street.
Just yesterday, Dow Jones reports highlighted that prior to the pardon, Binance had been instrumental in a new Trump family-linked crypto venture, World Liberty Financial. This included facilitating a massive $2 billion stablecoin purchase.
I’ve been covering this industry for a long time, and the lines between business and politics are starting to get incredibly blurry. This move suggests crypto has truly “arrived” as a major political force, for better or worse.
But what about the exchange itself?
While the political drama unfolds, the crypto exchange Binance hasn’t missed a beat. For them, it’s business as usual.
This is what an exchange operating at full throttle looks like:
- Aggressive Listings: Its “Binance Alpha” platform continues to roll out new, high-risk, high-reward tokens almost daily.
- Futures Expansion: The company just launched new perpetual contracts, expanding its already-dominant derivatives market.
- Spring Cleaning: It also just announced the delisting of 18 smaller altcoins, a routine move to maintain market quality.
As a result, the $4.3 billion fine from 2023 now looks less like a punishment and more like a cost of doing business.
Earlier this year, the SEC’s new Crypto Task Force signaled a “pause” in its legal battles against the industry. We now see the full result of that policy shift.
The crypto exchange Binance has effectively weathered its greatest storm. With its founder free and its regulatory path in the U.S. cleared, the company looks more entrenched and powerful than ever.
The only question left is: With this much influence, what does Binance do next?
