Zhao Pardon Could Open Door to Binance Negotiating with Trump Administration

Donoghue, a former acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General and current co-leader of Pillsbury's corporate investigations and white collar defense practice group, said Zhao's pardon could position Binance itself to negotiate more favorable agreements with regulators.

"I think it probably sets the stage for Binance itself to go back to the agencies with whom they struck these agreements and make an argument that the duration [of the monitorship] should be shortened or the other burdens and requirements should be either rid of entirely or made less burdensome," he said.

"I think they're certainly in a good position to make those kinds of arguments," Donoghue noted.

He added that Trump's decision to pardon Zhao likely isn't meant to signal that the U.S. government doesn't care about money laundering, but rather underscores the president's repeated commitment to make the U.S. a crypto capital.

"I think this is one way to demonstrate that that commitment is real, but I think it also sends signals to other industries such as AI and emerging technologies that the United States wants to be the center of innovation," said Donoghue.

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