Former US President Trump's pardon for Binance founder CZ means the US government has lifted previous restrictions prohibiting CZ from operating financial businesses. This also paves the way for CZ to return to frontline operations at Binance and resume the CEO position.

Following the news, the prices of mainstream cryptocurrencies generally rose. Considering Trump's prior pardons for several individuals in the crypto sector sentenced to various terms, and the increasingly close ties between crypto capital and the Trump family, this is interpreted as a further positive signal from Trump towards the crypto industry.

For CZ, this is indeed a moment of great significance. In response, he stated on Twitter (X) that he would do everything he can to help the US become the crypto capital of the world and promote the global development of Web3.

However, beyond these macro issues, the outside world is more focused on the impact CZ will have on Binance and what adjustments he might make after being away from its frontline operations for over a year. Specifically, will his return bring more wealth effects to Binance?

During the nearly two years of CZ's absence, Binance's internal and external environment has undergone significant changes. From OKX launching its Web3 wallet and challenging Binance in areas like inscriptions and Memes, to Hyperliquid capturing a substantial market share in perpetual contracts. Meanwhile, key competitor Coinbase has acquired over ten projects in the past year to address its weaknesses or enrich its product lines, such as Deribit, Sensible, Spindl, and Opyn.

Perhaps influenced by the $4.3 billion settlement paid to the US government, Binance has maintained a very restrained approach in both product line expansion and mergers & acquisitions over the past two years. Apart from follower-type launches like the Web3 wallet, there have been few major moves. It was against this backdrop that Binance launched its trump card product, Binance Alpha. Leveraging its position in liquidity and influence, it successfully consolidated its advantages in user traffic and trading volume, also driving the BNB price to new highs.

While attracting a large number of users and providing substantial airdrops, Binance Alpha became a target for many alt-project teams to exit their liquidity. Several incidents of tokens listing on Binance Alpha and subsequently crashing have occurred recently, causing significant losses for many retail investors.

Many viewpoints suggest that the low barrier to listing on Binance Alpha negatively impacts project development paths and even the broader ecosystem. "This mechanism seems to benefit a large number of small projects, rekindling the possibility of ICOs, but it actually creates an incentive trap where short-term liquidation is favored over long-term development. To some extent, BN's monopoly isn't just over attention and liquidity, but it's changing the entire industry's rules of the game – replacing 'long-term building' with 'quick exits'," said independent researcher Haotian.

From an external perspective, exchanges represented by Binance have become entities that exploit all liquidity and premiums in this cycle. Base lead Jesse Pollak also sarcastically remarked, "Raise your hand if you're ready to fight with CEX listing projects that charge 2-9% of the token supply."

For an exchange chasing users and profits, these actions by Binance are understandable; all goals can revolve around collecting more trading fees. However, as a "pillar" of the industry, having repeatedly positioned itself as a key builder committed to industry development, the external expectations for Binance extend beyond its own state to guiding and fostering the industry's positive development.

CZ has not been directly involved in Binance's operations for nearly two years. How he will view and adjust the operational mechanisms of Binance Alpha remains unknown. However, his series of statements and actions on X concerning BNB Chain and Memes over the past period have already "annoyed" a significant number of users.

Long term, BNB Chain has been one of Binance's core strategic directions, but the state of its ecosystem development has consistently been unsatisfactory, far less open and diverse than chains like Base. Major ecosystem projects like PancakeSwap, Aster, and Lista DAO mostly have backgrounds involving Binance work or Chinese affiliations, some even directly managed by current Binance staff. Ecosystem types beyond DeFi are also relatively scarce.

Starting about a year ago, chains like Solana attracted massive user traffic through Memecoins, while BNB Chain failed to keep pace with the market trend. CZ subsequently, either actively or passively, provided many personal elements (e.g., his dog's name, nicknames, remarks), driving tokens like $BROCCO, $CZDOG, $4, $GIGGLE, and "Binance Life" based on BNB Chain to surge in price and get listed on Binance markets, successfully helping BNB Chain gain a foothold in the Memecoin wave.

Nevertheless, CZ's level of involvement in this Memecoin wave led many to question his stature. "As a leader in the industry, he shouldn't be leading retail investors to gamble

The contributions Binance and CZ have made to the industry are undoubtedly indelible and significant. However, looking at the overall ecosystem of the crypto industry, Memecoins contribute very little to substantive industry development. If CZ is merely complacent about the growth of his own platform's traffic and users, it will be difficult for the outside world to hold higher expectations for him. Particularly in this context, can CZ lead Binance to further break through the ceilings of growth and compliance?

Furthermore, Binance's fundamental strengths have faced significant scrutiny recently. During the recent "1011" crash, the role Binance played raised many external doubts. Numerous crypto industry executives and KOLs alleged that an internal oracle failure at Binance caused the market crash. Although Binance published explanations and compensated some users, it still reflected major flaws in Binance's own trading structure and risk control. Moreover, this incident was not an isolated case.

While this is unlikely to shake Binance's leading position in the exchange arena, it will inevitably have some negative impact on the global public perception of the crypto industry, regulatory attitudes towards crypto trading, and Binance's overall industry competitiveness. For CZ, who emphasizes industry responsibility, this presents an exceptionally complex situation.

Former US President Trump's pardon for Binance founder CZ means the US government has lifted previous restrictions prohibiting CZ from operating financial businesses. This also paves the way for CZ to return to frontline operations at Binance and resume the CEO position.

Following the news, the prices of mainstream cryptocurrencies generally rose. Considering Trump's prior pardons for several individuals in the crypto sector sentenced to various terms, and the increasingly close ties between crypto capital and the Trump family, this is interpreted as a further positive signal from Trump towards the crypto industry.

For CZ, this is indeed a moment of great significance. In response, he stated on Twitter (X) that he would do everything he can to help the US become the crypto capital of the world and promote the global development of Web3.

However, beyond these macro issues, the outside world is more focused on the impact CZ will have on Binance and what adjustments he might make after being away from its frontline operations for over a year. Specifically, will his return bring more wealth effects to Binance?

During the nearly two years of CZ's absence, Binance's internal and external environment has undergone significant changes. From OKX launching its Web3 wallet and challenging Binance in areas like inscriptions and Memes, to Hyperliquid capturing a substantial market share in perpetual contracts. Meanwhile, key competitor Coinbase has acquired over ten projects in the past year to address its weaknesses or enrich its product lines, such as Deribit, Sensible, Spindl, and Opyn.

Perhaps influenced by the $4.3 billion settlement paid to the US government, Binance has maintained a very restrained approach in both product line expansion and mergers & acquisitions over the past two years. Apart from follower-type launches like the Web3 wallet, there have been few major moves. It was against this backdrop that Binance launched its trump card product, Binance Alpha. Leveraging its position in liquidity and influence, it successfully consolidated its advantages in user traffic and trading volume, also driving the BNB price to new highs.

While attracting a large number of users and providing substantial airdrops, Binance Alpha became a target for many alt-project teams to exit their liquidity. Several incidents of tokens listing on Binance Alpha and subsequently crashing have occurred recently, causing significant losses for many retail investors.

Many viewpoints suggest that the low barrier to listing on Binance Alpha negatively impacts project development paths and even the broader ecosystem. "This mechanism seems to benefit a large number of small projects, rekindling the possibility of ICOs, but it actually creates an incentive trap where short-term liquidation is favored over long-term development. To some extent, BN's monopoly isn't just over attention and liquidity, but it's changing the entire industry's rules of the game – replacing 'long-term building' with 'quick exits'," said independent researcher Haotian.

From an external perspective, exchanges represented by Binance have become entities that exploit all liquidity and premiums in this cycle. Base lead Jesse Pollak also sarcastically remarked, "Raise your hand if you're ready to fight with CEX listing projects that charge 2-9% of the token supply."

For an exchange chasing users and profits, these actions by Binance are understandable; all goals can revolve around collecting more trading fees. However, as a "pillar" of the industry, having repeatedly positioned itself as a key builder committed to industry development, the external expectations for Binance extend beyond its own state to guiding and fostering the industry's positive development.

CZ has not been directly involved in Binance's operations for nearly two years. How he will view and adjust the operational mechanisms of Binance Alpha remains unknown. However, his series of statements and actions on X concerning BNB Chain and Memes over the past period have already "annoyed" a significant number of users.

Long term, BNB Chain has been one of Binance's core strategic directions, but the state of its ecosystem development has consistently been unsatisfactory, far less open and diverse than chains like Base. Major ecosystem projects like PancakeSwap, Aster, and Lista DAO mostly have backgrounds involving Binance work or Chinese affiliations, some even directly managed by current Binance staff. Ecosystem types beyond DeFi are also relatively scarce.

Starting about a year ago, chains like Solana attracted massive user traffic through Memecoins, while BNB Chain failed to keep pace with the market trend. CZ subsequently, either actively or passively, provided many personal elements (e.g., his dog's name, nicknames, remarks), driving tokens like $BROCCO, $CZDOG, $4, $GIGGLE, and "Binance Life" based on BNB Chain to surge in price and get listed on Binance markets, successfully helping BNB Chain gain a foothold in the Memecoin wave.

Nevertheless, CZ's level of involvement in this Memecoin wave led many to question his stature. "As a leader in the industry, he shouldn't be leading retail investors to gamble

The contributions Binance and CZ have made to the industry are undoubtedly indelible and significant. However, looking at the overall ecosystem of the crypto industry, Memecoins contribute very little to substantive industry development. If CZ is merely complacent about the growth of his own platform's traffic and users, it will be difficult for the outside world to hold higher expectations for him. Particularly in this context, can CZ lead Binance to further break through the ceilings of growth and compliance?

Furthermore, Binance's fundamental strengths have faced significant scrutiny recently. During the recent "1011" crash, the role Binance played raised many external doubts. Numerous crypto industry executives and KOLs alleged that an internal oracle failure at Binance caused the market crash. Although Binance published explanations and compensated some users, it still reflected major flaws in Binance's own trading structure and risk control. Moreover, this incident was not an isolated case.

While this is unlikely to shake Binance's leading position in the exchange arena, it will inevitably have some negative impact on the global public perception of the crypto industry, regulatory attitudes towards crypto trading, and Binance's overall industry competitiveness. For CZ, who emphasizes industry responsibility, this presents an exceptionally complex situation.