Binance founder applies for presidential pardon
By: thestreet|2025/05/07 05:30:01
0
Share
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”.
You may also like

Why did the star Web3 project Across Protocol choose to abandon DAO?
The proposal for Across to privatize itself is a rare move, but it comes at a time when the industry is beginning to recognize that DAOs are a difficult organizational structure to operate.

In fact, ETH scaling is a major benefit for L2
ETH has finally admitted defeat—its Rollup-centric roadmap is unworkable, while the monolithic scaling solutions adopted by blockchains like Solana have proven to be correct.

Memories: 10 Key Contributions of the TON Core Team That Few People Knew in the Early Days
Every line of code, every tool we build, every sleepless night spent maintaining the network—these efforts have laid the foundation for TON's development today.

2025 South Korea CEX Listing Post-Mortem: Investing in New Coins = 70% Loss?
The 2025 South Korean exchange's new token listing performance is structurally similar to Binance's, with no significant differences.

BIP-360 Analysis: Bitcoin's First Step Towards Quantum Immunity, But Why Only the "First Step"?
This article explains how BIP-360 reshapes Bitcoin's quantum defense strategy, analyzes its enhancements, and discusses why it has not yet achieved full post-quantum security.

50 million USDT exchanged for 35,000 USD AAVE: How did the disaster happen? Who should we blame?
Due to a fatal flaw in the transaction path, a $50 million DeFi operation was executed with almost zero protection, resulting in nearly the entire amount of funds evaporating in a tiny liquidity pool.

The Cryptographic Past of the Middle East
Reality is often more exciting than fiction.

Resolving the Intergenerational Prisoner's Dilemma: The Inevitable Path of Nomadic Capital Bitcoin
When the baby boomer generation collectively sells off, who will become the "greater fool" in the next round of asset crashes?

Who Will Control AI? Why Decentralized AI May Be the Only Alternative to Government and Big Tech
AI has become critical infrastructure, and governments and corporations are competing to control it. Centralized development and regulation are entrenching existing power structures. The Web3 community is building a decentralized alternative — distributed compute, token incentives, and community governance — before that window closes.

Vitalik wrote a proposal teaching you how to secretly use AI large models
Vitalik believes that in the AI era, users should not have to give up their identity to use an AI tool.

On the eve of the explosion of on-chain options
Options are becoming a new anchor in the cryptocurrency market.

WEEX AI Hackathon: How Did This AI Trading Winner Succeed?
A self-taught AI trading enthusiast achieved top-10 results at the WEEX AI Hackathon. Learn about the mindset, AI tools, and lessons behind this impressive performance.

One Balance to Rule Them All: Gravitas' On-Chain Prime Broker Ambition
Forty years ago, a technological revolution broke the isolation of information, reshaping Wall Street. Forty years later, Grvt aims to break the isolation of capital with an on-chain prime brokerage model.

That person who cashed out at the NFT peak is now selling a new shovel in the OpenClaw craze
A skilled person never picks the table, they eat meat with every bite.

Inter-generational Prisoner's Dilemma Resolution: The Nomadic Capital and Bitcoin's Inevitable Path
When the Baby Boomer generation collectively sells off, who will be the "bag holder" in the next asset crash?

Upstream and downstream are starting to fight, all for the sake of everyone being able to "Lobster"
「Lobster」 may not be a mature product yet, but it has already ushered in a new era of 「AI Assistants」.

Circle and Mastercard Announce Partnership, the Next Stage for the Crypto Industry Belongs to Payments
Stablecoins are transitioning from a speculative tool to real financial scenarios such as payments, cross-border transfers, and store of value.

From 5 Mao per kWh of Chinese electricity to a $45 API export: Tokens are rewriting currency units
When the same unit can both measure hashing power and facilitate payments, it ceases to be just a term and begins to evolve into a new currency of both value and influence.
Why did the star Web3 project Across Protocol choose to abandon DAO?
The proposal for Across to privatize itself is a rare move, but it comes at a time when the industry is beginning to recognize that DAOs are a difficult organizational structure to operate.
In fact, ETH scaling is a major benefit for L2
ETH has finally admitted defeat—its Rollup-centric roadmap is unworkable, while the monolithic scaling solutions adopted by blockchains like Solana have proven to be correct.
Memories: 10 Key Contributions of the TON Core Team That Few People Knew in the Early Days
Every line of code, every tool we build, every sleepless night spent maintaining the network—these efforts have laid the foundation for TON's development today.
2025 South Korea CEX Listing Post-Mortem: Investing in New Coins = 70% Loss?
The 2025 South Korean exchange's new token listing performance is structurally similar to Binance's, with no significant differences.
BIP-360 Analysis: Bitcoin's First Step Towards Quantum Immunity, But Why Only the "First Step"?
This article explains how BIP-360 reshapes Bitcoin's quantum defense strategy, analyzes its enhancements, and discusses why it has not yet achieved full post-quantum security.
50 million USDT exchanged for 35,000 USD AAVE: How did the disaster happen? Who should we blame?
Due to a fatal flaw in the transaction path, a $50 million DeFi operation was executed with almost zero protection, resulting in nearly the entire amount of funds evaporating in a tiny liquidity pool.