Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, has confirmed his formal application for a presidential pardon from Donald Trump—just months after serving a four-month prison sentence in the United States. This update was shared by Zhao during an episode of the Farohk Radio podcast, where he mentioned that his legal team filed the application a fortnight ago.

“I’ve got lawyers applying. We only submitted after the Bloomberg article and the Wall Street Journal article came out,” Zhao stated, referring to reports that he was seeking a pardon while conducting crypto business deals with Trump family associates. Translation: “I have legal representation applying. We waited to submit until after Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal ran their articles.”

In April 2024, Zhao was sentenced after conceding guilt in 2023 for not maintaining a proper anti-money laundering regime at Binance, which was the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume at the time. He was fined $50 million, while Binance incurred a hefty $4.3 billion in penalties. Following his release in September last year, Zhao also revealed that he advised Kyrgyzstan on the potential use of BTC and BNB as their National Crypto Reserve.

Trump has previously pardoned other notable figures within the crypto sector, including the founder of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, and the co-founders of BitMEX, marking a shift towards a more crypto-friendly regulatory approach.