In a stunning twist that has the crypto world buzzing, reports are swirling that President Donald Trump is warming up to the idea of pardoning Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the ousted CEO of Binance. Fresh off a bombshell scoop from Fox Business, insiders whisper of heated White House talks that could wipe the slate clean for the crypto titan—potentially unlocking U.S. doors long slammed shut on the world’s largest exchange.
Whispers from the White House
The rumor mill ignited when veteran journalist Charles Gasparino dropped a tweet that lit up Crypto Twitter like a Bitcoin bull run. Citing White House sources, Gasparino revealed internal debates gaining steam, with Trump himself “leaning toward a pardon” for CZ. This isn’t idle gossip—Gasparino’s got the creds, rubbing elbows in Wall Street and D.C. corridors for years. CZ, ever the cool cucumber, didn’t shoot it down. Instead, he fired back with a simple, “Thank you, Charles. Great news if true,” while politely nitpicking a minor detail in the report. It’s the kind of coy optimism that screams “fingers crossed” in emoji-speak.
CZ’s Rocky Road to Redemption
Flash back to 2023: CZ stepped down as Binance’s CEO in a dramatic plea deal, copping to charges that landed him four months in a cushy California minimum-security slammer. He walked out still clutching the keys to the kingdom as Binance’s top shareholder, but barred from the executive suite. Founded in 2017 after a modest $15 million ICO, Binance exploded into the crypto colossus it is today—handling a jaw-dropping $75 billion in trades over the last 24 hours alone, dwarfing rivals like Bitget by nearly fivefold. Post-prison, CZ’s been the globe-trotting crypto whisperer, schooling governments on digital assets and sprinkling investments into blockchain upstarts. But that pardon application his lawyers filed back in May? It’s the golden ticket that could turbocharge his comeback.
Rumors, Denials, and High-Stakes Stakes
This isn’t CZ’s first dance with pardon drama. Earlier whispers tied the Trump clan to shady investment chats with Binance’s U.S. arm, but CZ shut that down hard. Fake news of a done-deal pardon even forced media retractions, with Binance co-founder Yi He waving it off like yesterday’s tweet. DOJ files? Still blank on any clemency for Zhao. Yet here we are again, teetering on the edge of what could be a seismic shift. A green light from Trump wouldn’t just rehab CZ’s resume—it could fling open U.S. market gates for Binance, shake up the exchange’s power structure, and beam a neon “crypto-friendly” sign over the administration. In a world where politics and pixels collide, this feels like the ultimate plot twist.