Why Did CZ Go to Prison — And Why Did Trump Pardon Him?

In October 2025, President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to Changpeng Zhao — the founder of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. To understand why that pardon happened, you first need to understand why CZ went to prison at all. The two events are directly connected, and both are covered in CZ's memoir Freedom of Money.

Why Did CZ Go to Prison?

CZ pleaded guilty in November 2023 to a single violation of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) — a U.S. anti-money laundering compliance law. The charge was not fraud. It was not theft. No Binance customers lost any money. The allegation was that Binance failed to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program as required by U.S. regulators.

As part of a broader settlement, Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion to the U.S. Department of Justice — one of the largest corporate settlements in American history. CZ personally paid a $150 million fine and stepped down as Binance CEO. Richard Teng took over as the company's Chief Executive Officer.

In April 2024, a federal judge sentenced CZ to four months in prison. Legal observers noted the sentence was unusually harsh for this type of charge — CZ's own lawyers argued at sentencing that no comparable BSA compliance case had ever resulted in prison time for an executive. The judge proceeded anyway.

CZ reported to federal prison and served his sentence. During those four months, with access only to prison computer terminals in 15-minute sessions and no ability to cut and paste, he wrote significant portions of Freedom of Money. "I just do a brain dump," he later explained. "Just type as fast as I can."

What Was the Biden Administration's Role?

CZ has been direct about his view of the political environment that surrounded his prosecution. He characterizes the Biden administration as creating a deliberately hostile environment for cryptocurrency companies, describing the SEC under Gary Gensler as having transformed from a neutral regulator into an adversary aligned with a specific political agenda.

Whether or not one agrees with that characterization, the timing and context of the prosecution became central to the debate around his eventual pardon.

The Trump Pardon

On October 23, 2025, President Trump granted CZ a full presidential pardon. Trump described the prosecution as a "Biden witch hunt" and argued that CZ had been treated unfairly by the previous administration.

The pardon was controversial. Critics pointed to financial connections between Binance and Trump family interests — including a $2 billion investment in Binance by an Emirati-backed firm using a Trump-affiliated stablecoin, and Binance's role in supporting Trump family crypto ventures. Senator Elizabeth Warren called the pardon an example of corruption.

CZ acknowledged the business relationship with Trump-linked entities but said it had been "misconstrued." He said he had expected a pardon would eventually come but was surprised by its timing.

What CZ Says About All of This

CZ tells his full version of these events in Freedom of Money — the 366-page memoir he began writing in prison. The book covers his life from a childhood in rural China (where his family had a dirt floor and no running water) to building Binance into a 300-million-user platform, the FTX collapse, the DOJ prosecution, prison, and the pardon.

Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, endorsed the book: "I'm thrilled that he has so clearly laid out his life story" and recommended it for aspiring entrepreneurs. The foreword is written by Yi He, co-founder of Binance.

Freedom of Money is currently ranked #1 in Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies on Amazon. CZ donates 100% of his author royalties to charitable causes — he receives no personal financial benefit from sales.