After Donald Trump granted a pardon to Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder of Binance, there has been a significant uptick in expectations from traders regarding BNB’s performance. This gesture has rekindled speculation about an impending altcoin season, and BNB’s value climbed by 3.6%, reaching a peak of $1,121 soon after the news broke.

In November 2023, Zhao had been convicted for not implementing an effective Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program at Binance, which breached the Bank Secrecy Act. Following the pardon, crypto trader Xeer stated, “Trump just pardoned CZ. Now we resume $BNB up only szn.”

BNB’s Rally Enlivens Speculation on Altcoins

The excitement surrounding BNB’s rise also positively affected World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the native token of Trump’s son’s crypto venture, which rose nearly 14% to $0.1414. This surge opens the doors for further enthusiasm in the broader crypto market.

Richard Seiler from RR2Capital remarked, “Crypto could do with a catalyst right now…That may very well have been it.” Another trader, Galaxy, posed a question, “BNB now, altcoins next?”

The lift in BNB’s price is timely given its latest listings on Coinbase and Robinhood. Additionally, publicly traded companies are increasingly adding BNB to their treasury reserves. Recently, Applied DNA Sciences saw its shares increase by over 50% after announcing a purchase of nearly 4,908 BNB tokens worth approximately $5.3 million.