Binance founder applies for presidential pardon

In a recent interview and a candid conversation from the immediate post- TOKEN2049 , Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said he has asked President Trump for a pardon—and that’s because he genuinely believes President Trump is crypto’s best chance at real institutional support. In one of his first public appearances since spending time in prison due to Binance’s legal settlement, CZ looked back at what it was like to see Trump’s pro-crypto stance from behind bars. “I certainly wouldn’t mind one [a pardon],” he said, “I got lawyers applying... we only applied two weeks ago after the Bloomberg article.” While CZ said he’s never communicated with Trump personally, he added, “He’s pro-crypto. Not just talking — he actually is. This will be a good guy for our industry.” He also weighed in on Trump’s contentious tariff policy, characterizing it more as a practice of business than as traditional geopolitical calculus. “Trump understands business... It’s not typical geopolitical negotiation, it’s business-style negotiation,” CZ continued. Asked if he would return as chief executive of Binance, CZ was unequivocal “I don’t think I’ll go back to Binance as a CEO. There are strong leaders in the company. The company’s been running well for the last year and a half without much involvement from me,” and that he is a shareholder. When asked about the future of crypto markets, CZ forecast that the whole crypto market cap would be worth $5 trillion by the end of the year. As for Bitcoin , CZ believes Bitcoin will reach “somewhere between $500K to a million”.