Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has responded strongly to recent claims made by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren.<\/p>\n
The exchange comes after President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao, who had previously pleaded guilty to willfully failing to implement an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) program at Binance.<\/p>\n
Warren condemned the pardon, saying<\/a> that CZ had pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge and had been sentenced to prison. She also claimed that he had financed Trump\u2019s stablecoin before asking<\/a> the president for clemency. \u201cIf Congress does not stop this kind of corruption, it owns it,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Her comments follow scrutiny over Zhao\u2019s ties to Trump-linked crypto ventures. According to The Wall Street Journal, he and his associates had backed initiatives related to these projects before his lobbying efforts.<\/p>\n CZ has since fired back against the claims, accusing<\/a> her of misrepresenting the nature of the charges against him. He noted that \u201ca U.S. Senator can\u2019t get her facts right, in a public post about a person\u2019s charge,\u201d and emphasized that \u201cthere were NO money laundering charges.\u201d He added that the DOJ was politically biased, suggesting that the case against him was influenced by the Biden administration\u2019s stance on crypto enforcement.<\/p>\n Zhao had pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and served a prison sentence tied to Binance\u2019s compliance failures. On Thursday, President Trump granted<\/a> him a full pardon, erasing the conviction and restoring his civil rights.<\/p>\n Warren was not the only one stirring controversy following the latest development. Members of the X crypto community pointed<\/a> to a HyperLiquid whale who previously made headlines for shorting the market ahead of President Trump\u2019s tariff announcement, netting around $190 million.<\/p>\n The same trader, allegedly linked to a Polymarket account named \u201cbigwinner01,\u201d reportedly placed a huge bet that CZ would be pardoned in 2025, earning more than $56,000. On-chain analysts have traced wallet activity and noted the timing of the market short and the prediction.<\/p>\n Some individuals are calling it \u201cobvious insider knowledge,\u201d while others argue that the pardon was unsurprising given Zhao\u2019s lobbying efforts and connections to Trump-linked crypto ventures.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, some people agree with the senator\u2019s concerns. Entrepreneur Nick O\u2019Neill said<\/a> the pardon was a bad sign for the industry. \u201cCZ at this point can get away with literally anything,\u201d he said, adding that Trump was letting his allies off the hook as long as they help him get rich.<\/p>\n A longtime supporter of crypto, O\u2019Neill stressed the urgent need for a clear regulatory framework in the U.S., calling the situation a clear sign of corruption.<\/p>\n The post CZ Claps Back at Warren\u2019s Commentary Following Trump Pardon<\/a> appeared first on CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has responded strongly to recent claims made by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. The exchange comes after President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao, who had previously pleaded guilty to willfully failing to implement an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) program at Binance. Warren Slams CZ Pardon as Corruption Warren condemned the pardon, saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":107606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/107606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Insider Knowledge Allegations<\/h2>\n