Zhao was sentenced in April 2024 after pleading guilty the year before to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at Binance, at the time the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.
Alongside his prison term, Zhao paid a $50 million fine. Binance itself paid $4.3 billion in what became one of the largest corporate settlements in U.S. history. He was released in September last year.
Trump has already pardoned other high-profile figures in the crypto space. These include Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and BitMEX’s co-founders as his administration brought on a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment.
During the podcast, CZ also revealed he wasn’t invested in Donald Trump’s official memecoin TRUMP.Earlier this week, Zhao revealed he advised Kyrgyzstan on using BTC and BNB as the initial cryptocurrencies for a potential National Crypto Reserve.
