When Crypto Justice Bends to Political Power -By Fransiscus Nanga Roka

The example the US recently gave in United States v. Binance is claimed to demonstrate how no matter how massive the crypto empire, even one that rivals any nation’s economic might, can ever buy its way out of lawfulness. But the story told by the case, set in 2026, is more telling; corporate guilt can linger while political power silently forces it into atrophy.

A washout of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ). “In November 2023, Binance pleaded guilty of violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), of operating an unregistered money-transmitting business, and also of violations meanwhile US sanctions. CZ also individually pleaded guilty to a single count of failing to maintain an effective anti money laundering program. $4.3 billion in fines and forfeiture, heavy compliance obligations, and independent monitoring as part of a settlement with Binance.

This was not some technical paperwork malfunction. Prosecutors alleged that Binance allowed more than 100,000 suspicious transactions by Hamas, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, ransomware actors, darknet markets and child-exploitation networks to go unreported. This regulatory vacuum at the exchange was intentional: a business model that capitalised on access to the US without responsibility.

Washington after Donald Trump reclaimed power. CZ was jailed for four months, before being released on 27 September 2024 not 28 September. On October 21, 2025, Trump later gave him a full presidential pardon.

The pardon did not erase CZ’s conviction itself; presidential clemency releases federal penal servitude, but it does not erase the offense from history. Its political message was completely clear: a billionaire with a platform acknowledging centuries of failures to control his finances could be redeemed by an executive power that would not extend to non-billionaire defendants.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s backtracking was less momentous. The civil complaint of the United States in 2023 accused Binance, CZ and related entities of thirteen violations of the law on securities, including operating unregistered exchanges, offering unregistered crypto-securities, misleading investors and secretly controlling customer assets. However, as opposed to suggestions that the litigation simply melted down into negotiation, the SEC filed a notice of voluntary dismissal with prejudice on May 29, 2025. The regulator called that decision also an exercise of discretion and policy, not a concession that its claims were unfounded.

Because, while crypto markets are borderless, enforcement is still politically plastic. When the end of classifying securities engages in good behavior correlation game and AML accountability if everybody decides to become incompetent, then prosecution becomes an electoral theater. For global exchanges, the life-threatening take-away lesson is no longer “comply or die,” but rather “delay, lobby and pray for political salvation.”

At the same time, CZ was said to still have significant financial power from his ownership stake in Binance, with some 2026 estimates putting his net worth north of $110 billion an imprecise valuation since Binance is a privately held entity and cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile. Punishment was consistently escaped by fortune; but deterrence failed.

This is why we should insist on public disclosure of presidential-pardon consultations with major financial offenders; ban political mosque interference in regards to independent monitors; create statutory crypto-asset classifications; and impose cross-border beneficial-ownership, reserve, sanctions-screening and customer-asset-segregation standards. Other recommendations for a given jurisdiction to seek such harmonization include constructing interoperable enforcement frameworks that prevent any single administration from becoming the crypto industry’s escape hatch.

This is when Binance was meant to prove that code is not above law Mercifully, America is not one of those places and it is instead an election focused on preserving that very understanding and proving that wealth, access and presidential favor truly have no place above either.

Fransiscus Nanga Roka

Faculty of Law University 17 August 1945 Surabaya and Managing Partner Law Firm Victorious Indonesia