The pardon comes as lawmakers are working to strike a bipartisan deal on a landmark crypto bill.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis condemned President Donald Trump’s move to pardon cryptocurrency mogul Changpeng Zhao on Thursday, saying it sends “a bad signal.”
“I don’t like it,” the retiring North Carolina Republican told reporters. “He was convicted. He’s not innocent.”
His comments signal that some GOP lawmakers are uneasy with the move to pardon Zhao, who pleaded guilty in November 2023 to money laundering-related charges. Zhao, often known as CZ, founded the crypto exchange Binance, which federal prosecutors alleged became a hub for illicit finance.
The pardon could complicate an ongoing effort on Capitol Hill to negotiate a major overhaul of crypto regulations, which requires bipartisan support. Democrats have denounced the pardon as corrupt, pointing to a $2 billion investment that an Abu Dhabi-backed fund made in Binance using a digital token issued by a crypto firm launched by Trump’s sons.
The top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, said in a statement Thursday that “if Congress does not stop this kind of corruption in pending market structure legislation, it owns this lawlessness.”
Warren is opposed to the market structure effort, but a group of 12 more crypto-friendly Democrats is working to negotiate a deal with Republicans on the legislation. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a leader of that effort, told reporters that Warren is “not wrong,” adding that the issue “does need to be addressed.”
Democrats are pushing for language in the bill that would target the Trump family’s entanglements in the crypto industry, but it is likely to be a non-starter with Republicans.
“It’s absolutely corrupt what this president is doing, and none of us should be surprised,” Gallego said. “What we’re trying to do in market structure is to keep the Binances of the world outside of the United States market.”
Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a pro-crypto New Mexico Democrat, said he doesn’t “approve of what the president did here,” but added: “I’m not going to get distracted by what this president does either.”
“I would argue that this bill should make the environment — and will make the environment — stronger so that crooks can’t get away with the bullshit that they get away with,” he said.