President Trump pardons Binance founder. What codes get you on the elevator?

The White House is proving to be a strong ally of influential figures in the cryptocurrency industry.

President Donald Trump pardoned Changping Zhao, known to most as “CZ,” who was convicted and served four months in prison last year after pleading guilty to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. Binance was fined over $4 billion due to compliance failures that led to illicit transactions. Zhao personally paid a $50 million fine and resigned from his position as CEO of the international cryptocurrency exchange he founded. His now clear roster could see him return to a leadership role at Binance.

The Binance founder has reportedly campaigned for months for a presidential pardon, including promoting the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) saw a rapid rise of approximately 3% to 5%, before the rally faded. Binance utility token BNB (BNBUSD) jumped roughly 8% to 15% depending on the cryptocurrency exchange before giving up some gains; It’s over now 4% in the last 24 hours according to CoinGecko. Alt5 Sigma (ALTS), the cryptocurrency vault that stores the Trump-linked cryptocurrency WLFI (WLFIUSD), rose more than 11%, and the token itself jumped 15%.

The White House did not respond to emailed questions about the events leading up to President Trump clearing Chao’s criminal history. At a press conference, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt described his trial as part of the Biden administration’s “war on cryptocurrencies.” A Binance spokesperson declined to comment on whether Zhao will return to Binance.

Chow is the latest major cryptocurrency figure to receive a presidential pardon. Earlier this year, President Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who ran a dark web marketplace called Silk Road, as well as Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, co-founders of peer-to-peer cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform BitMEX.