US President Trump’s Thursday pardon of Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance who was convicted in 2023 of failing to prevent money laundering, may pave the way for the world’s largest crypto exchange to return to the U.S., some industry participants said.

Binance was banned from operating in the U.S. two years ago after the company pleaded guilty to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering laws and paid a large penalty of $4.3 billion. Zhao stepped aside as chief executive at the company in the same year, paid a fine of $50 million and served nearly four months in prison in 2024, after pleading guilty to related charges.

Even before its 2023 exit, Binance faced mounting regulatory pressure in the U.S. Partly in response to that, the exchange created a U.S. affiliate, Binance.U.S., in 2019, which claimed to be a separate entity. While Binance.US has continued its operations, it has far fewer customers and product offerings, and it is available only in select states.

If Binance could resume operations in the U.S., it may “change the game for crypto in America” by opening up the largest crypto-trading venue in the world for American investors, said Ian Weisberger, chief executive at the crypto algorithmic platform CoinRoutes.

Still, Binance’s comeback is far from guaranteed, said Seoyoung Kim, a finance professor at Santa Clara University.

The exchange still would need to apply for approval to operate with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, depending on the products it plans to offer in the U.S., Kim said in a phone interview.

What’s more, critics argued that the pardon reflects “the corruption that is emanating from the White House,” said Mark Hays, associate director of crypto and fintech policy at Americans for Financial Reform, a Washington, D.C.–based advocacy group.

“This all paints a very dark picture of undue influence in American politics,” Hays said in a phone interview with MarketWatch. If Binance does return to the U.S. market, it may point to increased political favoritism, Hays added.

Hays made the comments as Binance has reportedly been a major backer of the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Finance, which launched a stablecoin called USD.1, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden administration in their war on cryptocurrency,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, wrote in an email to MarketWatch.

“He [Zhao] was recommended [for a pardon] by a lot of people. … A lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything,” Trump told reporters during a White House event Thursday afternoon. “It wasn’t a crime, that he was persecuted by the Biden administration.”

“We thank President Trump for his leadership and for his commitment to make the US the crypto capital of the world,” a spokesperson at Binance wrote to MarketWatch. 

Potential path of a comeback

One possible path for Binance to operate in the U.S. again is to apply to register as a foreign board of trade with the CFTC, according to CoinRoutes leader Weisberger.

Eyeing Binance’s potential return, investors will be closely watching whether U.S. regulators would allow it to offer perpetual futures, a type of derivatives contract that lets traders speculate on the future price of a cryptocurrency without a set expiration date. The instrument is highly popular in the crypto market but often traded with significant leverage.

If Binance could operate in the U.S., it could unlock more liquidity for institutional investors in the country, and allow them to invest in newer cryptocurrencies, which often are listed first on Binance, said Alexander Blume, chief executive at crypto trading firm Two Blume. It could also enable more trading opportunities across exchanges, Blume said.

“I don’t think people have a lot of trust for Binance in the United States, but it could still do quite well,” said Blume. “It will definitely mean more competition for some other exchanges.”

Binance Coin jumped 4.9% to $1,118 on Thursday, according to CoinDesk data.