In brief
- President Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao on Thursday.
- Digital coins linked with both the president and Zhao rose as a result.
- Zhao backed the crypto project linked to President Trump, World Liberty Financial, ahead of the pardon.
Digital assets related to Binance and President Donald Trump surged on Thursday following news that the U.S. leader had pardoned the crypto exchange’s ex-CEO and founder, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
Binance’s BNB token was among the top-performing cryptocurrencies recently climbing about 4.7% to trade at about $1,115, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. BNB rose as high as $1,149 earlier in the day.
World Liberty Financial—WLFI—soared even higher. The Trump- and Binance-backed asset, which runs on Ethereum, was recently priced at over $0.14 after jumping by 15.2% from Wednesday, same time.
And 4, a meme coin linked to Zhao’s X posts of the number as a way to list reasons crypto won’t fail, rose 32% on the day to change hands over $0.11.
The token runs on Binance’s BNB chain, which allows developers to introduce new assets and build apps.
The White House on Thursday confirmed to Decrypt that President Trump had pardoned Binance founder Zhao.
Zhao pleaded guilty to violating U.S. laws against money laundering charges in 2023. He served four months in prison in 2024.
Feds had gone after Zhao for years after alleging that the ex-Binance boss allowed individuals linked to virtual theft and terrorism to use the world’s biggest crypto exchange.
Writing on X on Thursday, Zhao said he was “deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice.”
Binance has links to the President Trump-backed World Liberty Financial project: The project’s USD1 stablecoin is available on BNB, and a $2 billion investment into Binance from Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund MGX was paid using the token.
The gains were part of a wider market jump that regained some ground lost in recent weeks. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently up nearly 2%, while Ethereum, the second largest digital asset by market value, recently rose 1.3%.
Cryptocurrencies have been battered along with other risk-on assets as investors have fretted about the U.S. global trade war and other macroeconomic uncertainties.
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