Following Zhao’s resignation as CEO, Binance installed Richard Teng, a former financial regulator in the U.A.E. and Singapore, to telegraph to authorities that the company had turned a new leaf and was focused on compliance.
The President’s pardon of Zhao is the clearest sign yet that the crypto industry has enjoyed unprecedented favor under Trump’s administration. Zhao is also not the first crypto criminal Trump has pardoned since the President assumed office.
Formerly a crypto skeptic, Trump embraced the industry in his 2024 campaign for reelection, as crypto executives poured millions in donations into Trump-associated super PACs, or political action committees.
When he entered the White House in January, Trump began to make good on his campaign promise of making the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.”
“If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption in pending market structure legislation, it owns this lawlessness,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D—Mass.) in a statement, referring to a crypto bill that is under deliberation in the Senate.
