Binance Co-Founder CZ Receives Presidential Pardon After Guilty Plea

Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, is a Chinese-born Canadian entrepreneur and software engineer who co-founded Binance in 2017. He served as CEO until November 2023, overseeing its rapid expansion into one of the world's largest digital-asset trading platforms.

After leaving Binance's executive leadership, Zhao focused on education, investment, Web3, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology. In October 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump granted him a presidential pardon following his guilty plea over Binance's failure to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program.

Zhao was born in 1977 in Jiangsu Province, China, and moved with his family to Canada during his youth. He studied computer science at McGill University in Montreal, providing the technical foundation for a career that would eventually connect traditional financial markets with cryptocurrency.