Binance’s CZ Claims U.S. Crypto Rivals Paid Millions to Block His Presidential Pardon

By now, crypto memoirs have developed a particular ritual. The cover image, which is typically in black and white, features a contemplative expression in the middle of a gaze. A title that strives for the philosophical but falls short. endorsements from unexpected sources, including the very organizations the book purports to oppose. Freedom of Money, Changpeng Zhao’s latest book, is nearly ideal for this genre.

The charge buried in its later pages is what sets it apart. The former CEO of Binance claims that American cryptocurrency exchanges paid millions of dollars to prevent President Trump from pardoning him in October of last year, and that these same rivals covertly sponsored what he refers to as “smear articles” in Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.

The book, which is almost 300 pages long and include quotes from Ray Dalio of Bridgewater and Larry Fink of BlackRock, was published on April 8. It’s worth stopping for that alone. Just fifteen months prior, a man was serving a four-month federal prison sentence for failing to run an efficient anti-money-laundering program at Binance.

Two of the most prestigious names in international finance lent their reputations to this man. Binance lost $4.3 billion as a result of the 2023 deal with US regulators. CZ resigned from his position as CEO. The exchange pulled out of the US market. His career in American finance was over by any standard interpretation. All of that was drastically altered by President Trump’s October 2025 pardon.

The main assertion made by CZ in the biography and reiterated on the Crypto Banter podcast in May is that rivals put up a fierce fight to prevent such pardon. “They paid millions in lobbying fees to block the pardon, in fear of business competition,” he said.

Although Coinbase, which has dominated the U.S. retail cryptocurrency sector since Binance’s exit, has been mentioned in press coverage of the book, he does not name individual companies in the paragraph detailing the alleged effort. He freely acknowledges that his story is based on what “a few friends” told him and that he lacks actual documentation evidence. The vulnerable heart of the whole assertion is that admission, where curiosity gives way to caution.

The simultaneous reporting on Binance’s own lobbying is what gives the story its peculiar structure. Politico revealed that Binance spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to obtain clemency through public papers made at the time of the pardon. According to reports, a company headed by Donald Trump Jr.’s “hunting buddy” was paid $450,000 for just one month of labor.

Therefore, if CZ’s story is taken at its value, it is not a clear picture of predatory rivals and innocent victims. It is more akin to both sides heavily investing in Washington at the same time, with one side emerging victorious. The memoir’s refusal to see that symmetry has a certain honesty about it. The connection between cryptocurrency and Washington in 2025 was never going to be fair, since lobbying is not really a clean sector.

The pardon is part of a larger business calculation. In early 2025, Binance.US, which had been hindered since 2023, discreetly reinstated fiat deposits and withdrawals for U.S. clients, and in February, it resumed full operations for qualified users. With the clear goal of regaining market share from Coinbase, it appointed Stephen Gregory, a former employee of Currency.com, as its new CEO last month.

In an interview with Crypto Banter, CZ described the lack of competition in the U.S. cryptocurrency market and commended the current administration’s regulatory clarity. It was an overt implication. In one way or another, Binance plans to return. The pardon was always more about clearing a runway than it was about finding closure.

It’s difficult to ignore how much of this story is unconfirmed. No public filing has supported CZ’s particular allegation that rival exchanges organized and funded opposition lobbying and media manipulation. In original documents, no rival exchange has been identified, and none has responded publicly. Although the type of behind-the-scenes pressure CZ describes seldom appears in neatly quantified form, federal lobbying disclosures may someday provide some detail.

Additionally, there is a helpful skepticism that is worthwhile. CZ has every reason to claim that industry collusion, not regulatory enforcement, is to blame for his legal issues. He entered a guilty plea to actual Bank Secrecy Act offenses. The settlement was genuine. The four months of incarceration were actual.

Nevertheless, the memoir does what this type of narrative does best. It modifies the discourse. One of the remaining legal risks facing Binance was eliminated in March 2026 when a court decision dismissed a 2024 lawsuit alleging that the business facilitated money transfers to terrorist groups. In particular, Larry Fink’s endorsement shows that certain Wall Street insiders are now open to interacting with people who were deemed untouchable just two years ago. The wider change the book signifies may be more important than whether CZ’s particular allegations regarding competitor lobbying are ever proven.

Cryptocurrency is evolving from a financial sector to a political one. Regulatory filings, lobbying reports, and the methodical, gradual process of bringing Binance back to the United States will tell the story of the next chapter. For the time being, the most intriguing statement in Freedom of Money might be the one that CZ chose not to write: that the fight wasn’t really about him at all, even after a presidential pardon.