In his more than 300-page memoir, Binance founder and ex-CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao says U.S. crypto exchanges spent millions in an attempt to block his pardon.
CZ also references what he calls “false news” reported in The Wall Street Journal and “smear articles” published by Bloomberg.
“A few friends told me that those smear articles were funded by U.S. crypto exchanges fearing that a pardon would allow Binance to re-enter the U.S. market,” he wrote. “They paid millions in lobbying fees to block the pardon, in fear of business competition.”
President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao last October.
In 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls at Binance in addition to stepping down as the company’s CEO. He has said that being forced to serve prison time came as a surprise, pointing to past enforcement actions that typically resulted in deferred prosecution agreements or home confinement.
According to Politico, Binance spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for CZ’s pardon, including paying one firm, run by “a hunting buddy of Donald Trump Jr,” $450,000 for one month of work.
CZ also says in the book that efforts to block his pardon ran contrary to President Trump’s wish to make “America the crypto capital.”
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio both provided testimonials for CZ’s book.
“As a great admirer of CZ for his bold contributions to making alternative monies accessible to almost everyone in the world,” Dalio says in the memoir.
Last month, Binance.US hired former Currency.com CEO Stephen Gregory as its new chief executive with an eye to capturing more of the U.S. market, where Coinbase is considered dominant.
The new hire came roughly one year after Binance.US restored customers’ fiat deposits and withdrawals for U.S. customers.
© 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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