Binance founder Changpeng Zhao reflects on prison, Trump and potential bitcoin supercycle after pardon

Binance founder and ex-CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao spoke publicly about his prison sentence, the opaque pardon process, and his outlook for crypto markets in an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Speaking to Squawk Box co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin, Zhao said the October pardon by President Trump lifted a "psychological burden" that had lingered even after he completed a four-month prison sentence tied to violations of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act.

"I was a free man before, but with a felon status," Zhao said. "Now I’m a real free man."

Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls at Binance and stepped down as CEO as part of a sweeping settlement with U.S. authorities. He said he did not expect to serve time in prison, pointing to past enforcement actions that typically resulted in deferred prosecution agreements or home confinement rather than incarceration.

"No one in U.S. history had ever gone to jail for a single registration failure under the Bank Secrecy Act," Zhao said, adding that he believed home confinement was the most severe likely outcome.

Zhao described his first days in prison as “brutal,” recounting strip searches and the shock of incarceration, but said he approached the sentence as something to endure and move past.

Pardon process and Trump ties

Zhao said he did not initially seek a pardon after his release and only asked lawyers to submit a petition months later, after widespread media speculation linked his case to the Trump administration’s pro-crypto posture.

He described the pardon process as a "black box" and denied any direct lobbying or personal outreach to Trump or his family. Zhao said he has never spoken with Trump and only saw him from the audience at a Davos event this week.

"There's really no connection," Zhao said, pushing back on reports suggesting business ties between Binance and Trump-linked entities influenced the pardon.

Zhao specifically addressed reporting around Abu Dhabi–based investor MGX and the use of World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin in a Binance transaction, saying USD1 was simply used as a payment rail, not an investment in the issuer.

"If I accept a stablecoin as payment, that doesn’t mean I invested in the issuer," he said, adding that the funds were converted over time.

FTX and market outlook

Asked about the collapse of rival exchange FTX and whether its founder Sam Bankman-Fried should be pardoned, Zhao declined to comment on the merits of that case and rejected portrayals casting him as a central figure in FTX's downfall.

Zhao said Binance briefly explored a potential acquisition of FTX in 2022 but walked away after losing confidence in the accuracy of the company’s financial disclosures. He said he had no insight into FTX’s balance sheet before media reports raised concerns about insolvency.

On markets, Zhao said he does not trade crypto and avoids trying to time price movements, describing himself as a long-term holder rather than an active trader. While he declined to offer near-term price targets, Zhao said he believes bitcoin could enter a "supercycle" in 2026, potentially breaking the asset’s historical four-year pattern of post-halving booms and busts.

"With the U.S. being so pro-crypto now and other countries following, I think we could break the four-year cycle," he said.

Wrapping up the interview, Sorkin asked Zhao what he would do differently if he could start over, to which Zhao offered a short answer: block U.S. users from Binance "from day one."

"At the beginning, we were a small tech startup," Zhao said. "If I had known what I know now, I would have just blocked U.S. users and avoided a lot of trouble."