UPDATE: Trump’s crypto pardon delivers immediate payback

On Monday, Popular Information reported on President Trump’s October 23 pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, who pled guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws. According to the Department of Justice, CZ’s conduct “allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers” through Binance. CZ served four months in prison and agreed to step down as CEO.

On Tuesday, Binance’s U.S. exchange announced it would begin allowing trading of two Trump-linked cryptocurrencies — USD1 and WLFI. Both cryptocurrencies were issued by World Liberty Financial, a company co-founded by Trump and his sons.

The move will directly benefit Trump financially. Although both WLFI and USD1 started trading on Binance’s international platform earlier this year, that service is unavailable in the U.S. Binance’s decision makes both cryptocurrencies more easily accessible for American investors.

Expanded trading widens the pool of potential investors, boosting demand and the tokens’ value. Trump reportedly owns 15.7 billion WLFI tokens, over 15% of the total supply. USD1 is a stablecoin designed to maintain its value relative to a dollar. Trump and other World Liberty Financial owners profit by investing the reserve assets. The more USD1 tokens purchased, the greater the potential profit for Trump.

As technology researcher Molly White noted, lawyer Teresa Goody Guillén was hired by CZ to advocate for his pardon while she “simultaneously represented Trump’s World Liberty Financial.”

Facilitating trading for USD1 and WLFI is only the latest move by Binance and CZ that financially benefits Trump. Earlier this year, Binance accepted a $2 billion investment from an Abu Dhabi investment fund in USD1. The transaction immediately gave USD1 legitimacy and liquidity. The move has likely already generated tens of millions for Trump and other World Liberty Financial owners — and could potentially generate hundreds of millions more if the USD1 tokens are not redeemed for several years. According to Bloomberg, Binance also “wrote the basic code to power USD1” for World Liberty Financial.

In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump family “have held talks to take a financial stake in the U.S. arm of crypto exchange Binance.”

On Tuesday, seven senators, including Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), sent Attorney General Pam Bondi a letter raising pointed questions about Trump’s pardon of CZ. The senators wrote that the pardon “signals to cryptocurrency executives and other white-collar criminals that they can commit crimes with impunity, so long as they enrich President Trump enough.”