When Shift Happens2 min read
CZ says his pardon petition was filed April 2025, never once spoke to Trump
Binance founder CZ details his path to a Trump pardon and says nothing he did would be a crime under today's rules.
AI summary of “CZ Binance Founder: Why The US Jailed Crypto's Wealthiest Founder”
Key takeaways
- CZ says he submitted his pardon petition in April 2025, after Ross Ulbricht (March 2025) and Arthur Hayes.
- He used the same lawyer who handled Ulbricht's and Hayes's pardons and got updates every one to four weeks.
- CZ says he never met, called, texted or emailed Trump; the closest was seeing him on stage in Davos.
- He argues nobody has ever gone to prison for a single Bank Secrecy Act violation and that current platforms without KYC face no such charges.
- CZ tells Elon Musk to "go for it" on putting Bitcoin at the center of X Money and says the step from stablecoins to Bitcoin is "one click away."
CZ describes the petition process and says he never had contact with Trump
CZ explains that once Ross Ulbricht and then Arthur Hayes were pardoned in March 2025, he began working with his lawyers to figure out the process, eventually hiring the same lawyer who handled both of those cases. He says he submitted his own petition in April 2025 and then received updates "every week, every two weeks, every month kind of basis," with no clarity on timing: "we're still waiting, we're still waiting. Nobody knows when it's going to happen."
Asked whether he had to meet Trump, CZ is direct:
"I never met Trump once never. So I never met Trump in person. I never had a phone call with him. I never had a talk with him. I never had a email."He adds that the closest he came was seeing Trump on stage at Davos while he sat in the audience, with no interaction.
CZ argues his charge wouldn't be an issue today, and gives Elon Musk advice on Bitcoin at X Money
CZ says he was charged over an insufficiently strong KYC program at Binance, not over handling transactions personally, and claims "no one ever went to prison for a single violation of the banking secrecy act." He argues that under current regulatory discussions, international platforms and perpetual decentralized exchanges may not need KYC at all, geo-fencing US users instead, which he says means:
On Elon Musk and X Money, CZ, who invested in Musk's Twitter acquisition, says he'd tell Musk to "go for it" on putting Bitcoin at the center of the product, calling himself a passive investor who avoids telling Musk what to do. He says such a move isn't far off, noting discussions on X about accepting stablecoins first, after which adding Bitcoin, Ethereum or BNB would be "literally one click away."
Written by AI from the video's transcript. It can compress, misattribute or miss context — the original video is the source. Not investment advice.
