Prominent Trump supporter and Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) co-founder Joe Lonsdale has publicly criticized the president’s decision to pardon Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the co-founder of Binance.
‘POTUS Advised Terribly On This,’ Says Lonsdale
Lonsdale took to X on Thursday to say: “POTUS has been terribly advised on this; it makes it look like massive fraud is happening around him in this area.”
He expressed his admiration for Trump, saying, “this is possibly the greatest admin of my lifetime – except for these pardons.”
Zhao, a billionaire who is one of the most influential figures in crypto, quit in 2023 as Binance’s top boss after the company pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and paid a penalty of $4.3 billion. He personally paid a $50 million fine and served nearly four months in prison last year after pleading guilty to the same charge as his company.
In response to a commenter, Lonsdale added that “the goal of this post is to influence future policy in a positive direction,” and that he was also concerned about an earlier pardon for ousted Nikola CEO Trevor Milton.
Warren Points Finger At Trump-Binance Ties
The pardon is also drawing criticism over the Trump family’s ties with Binance, which is the world’s largest crypto exchange.
In May, Eric Trump announced the use of the Trump family-backed stablecoin USD1 in a $2 billion deal with Binance. World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff said the goal is to make USD1 the dominant stablecoin across both centralized and decentralized finance.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) slammed Trump’s decision and stated, “he boosted one of Donald Trump's crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon….If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption in pending market structure legislation, it owns this lawlessness."
Trump Defends Decision
When questioned by reporters on the decision to pardon, Trump said he never met CZ and doesn’t know him. He added, “The crypto guy… was recommended by a lot of people. A lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything. He served four months in jail, and they say that he was not guilty of anything.”
Zhao was prosecuted by the Biden administration “in their war on cryptocurrency,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Trump’s decision to pardon CZ was met with gratitude from the billionaire, who pledged to advance the U.S. cryptocurrency industry.
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