Appreciative of Trump pardon, Binance's Changpeng Zhao sets sights on making US the crypto capital

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said he plans to help the US reclaim leadership in digital assets after receiving a presidential pardon from Donald Trump last year, even as the world’s largest crypto exchange continues to scale back its direct presence in the country.

Zhao, also known as CZ, was pardoned by Trump in October 2025 after serving jail time for failing to prevent money laundering on Binance. The clemency underscored the Trump administration’s willingness to align itself with the crypto industry.

Speaking on the sidelines of Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai, Zhao said, “I don't have any direct connection with the Trump family. I'm very appreciative of the pardon from President Trump. It does allow me to allow me or us to do this business more freely in every part of the world, including the US.”

“It is my full intention to help make America the capital of crypto,” he added.

Why CZ didn’t expand Binance in the US earlier?

Over the years, CZ’s influence has grown beyond his exchange business as he has worked closely with governments across the world, helping them adopt and regulate the crypto sector more effectively.

In the US, while he wants to support the growth of the crypto industry, he does not expect Binance to expand aggressively in the country anytime soon.

He said that despite the US being the “origin land” for Binance, the past few years of dealing with the US government under former President Joe Biden pushed him to withdraw from the market.

“In the last few years, we've been dealing with the last US government (the Biden administration) so much that we tried to withdraw from the US as much as possible. We try not to have any US nexus,” he said.

He added, “We don't invest in the US. We try to pull out as much as possible. We do have Binance US, but it's a very small business right now. I mean, Binance US on the day when SEC sued them in 2023, had 35% market share versus Coinbase. Today, they have like less than one per cent (market share).”

CZ said Binance in the US had lost all its banking access and even some state licenses, though the platform is now fully operational.

Bringing Binance back to US

CZ admitted that the US is an important market as it leads in tech and AI talent, but for other technologies such as blockchain, the leaders are currently based outside of US.

“The largest businesses, us, a few other large players are not technically in the US. So I do want to help bring many of those businesses back into the US. Many US investors, institutional investors do not have access or do not have closure to BNB and the projects in the BNB ecosystem. So, we also want to help with that,” he said.

He added, “All of that is open. And, I do fully intend to help the crypto businesses in the US and including investments, including helping startups, and helping the BNB chain projects.”