Key Takeaways:
- Changpeng Zhao’s presidential pardon draws backlash in the US Senate.
- Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff pushed for a resolution condemning the Trump administration for the CZ pardon.
Crypto industry critic Senator Elizabeth Warren has put forward a Senate resolution this week to condemn President Trump’s pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ). Backing this resolution is the pro-crypto senator Adam Schiff, who said, “President Trump’s pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao is just the latest example of the president’s use of the pardon power as a means of rewarding wealthy donors and allies and enriching himself.”
Senator Warren also denounced the pardon, calling it a form of corruption that Congress needs to stop.
Why CZ Pardon is Drawing Political Condemnation
In the resolution, Warren pointed out how Changpeng Zhao’s willful failure to maintain an anti-money laundering program as Binance CEO led to his pleading guilty in 2023. Additionally, the senator stated that Binance itself also pleaded to criminal charges, leading to a financial penalty of $4.3 billion and CZ’s sentence to four months of jail time.
The senator went on to draw a connection between possible business dealings between the Trump family and CZ. Citing a Wall Street Journal news report on March 13, 2025, the resolution states that President Trump’s family’s representatives were negotiating to purchase a financial stake in the United States arm of Binance, of which Zhao remains the largest shareholder.
Meanwhile, CZ has also been involved in the most significant use of USD1, a stablecoin issued by the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, when an investment company used the stablecoin to purchase a $2 billion stake in Binance. The transaction occurred in May 2025, a month after CZ formally applied to the Trump administration for a presidential pardon.
The senators are seeing this chain of events as related and as an indicator of an intertwined business relationship between CZ and the Trump family. The resolution echoes the sentiment of many Democrats who are also displeased by Changpeng Zhao’s pardon.
