Changpeng Zhao, the multibillionaire founder of crypto exchange Binance, spent four months last year locked in a federal prison. After US president Donald Trump pardoned Zhao in October, the government has recast him as a martyr.

Zhao, who goes by CZ, pled guilty in November 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at Binance. In parallel, Binance admitted to violating US sanctions and settled with financial regulators, which accused the company of failing to report suspicious transactions involving terror groups, child exploitation networks, and cybercriminals, among other violations. In a particularly incriminating exchange detailed in court documents, one Binance employee said to a colleague, “we see the bad, but we close 2 eyes.”

As part of their respective settlement deals, Zhao agreed to forfeit his role as Binance CEO, and Binance agreed to leave the US, accept supervision by a US-appointed compliance monitor, and pay a record $4.3 billion penalty.

Less than two years later, the narrative has flipped. On October 23, Trump struck the charges from Zhao’s criminal record. The Binance founder was a victim of the “Biden administration’s war on crypto,” a White ...