The world’s biggest crypto exchange just got caught with its hand in the terror-financing cookie jar again, and instead of cleaning house, they fired the people who caught them. This isn’t some victimless blockchain game. This is real money—billions—slipping through to Iranian entities tied straight to terrorist groups while American blood and treasure keep flowing to counter those same threats in the Middle East.
You cannot make this up.
The Company Built on Gray Areas
Binance exploded onto the scene as the dominant force in cryptocurrency trading, handling trillions in volume and turning digital coins into a global phenomenon. Founded in 2017, it grew into the largest exchange on the planet by volume, promising borderless finance and freedom from traditional banking. But that freedom always came with a catch: operating in the regulatory shadows, hopping jurisdictions, and playing fast and loose with know-your-customer rules.
By November 2023, the bill came due. Binance pleaded guilty to systemic violations of anti-money laundering laws, sanctions rules, and basic compliance. The penalty was a record $4.3 billion. Founder Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, copped to one count and headed to federal prison for four months in 2024. The company promised it had turned the page, hired monitors, and gone legit under the new regime.
Trump’s Pardon: A Second Chance Squandered?
Fast forward to October 23, 2025. President Trump issued a full, unconditional pardon for CZ, calling the whole prosecution a Biden-era witch hunt against the crypto industry. CZ walked free, started showing up at Mar-a-Lago events, and Binance looked poised for a full American comeback. Trump world bet big on crypto as the future of finance and innovation. Fair enough—America leads in technology, and we shouldn’t kneecap our own edge.
But second chances come with expectations. You don’t get to keep running the same old scams just because the boss got a pardon.
The $1.7 Billion Iranian Terror Pipeline
Here is where it gets ugly. Internal investigators at Binance uncovered more than $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency—much of it stablecoin USDT on the Tron blockchain—flowing from just two Binance accounts directly to Iranian entities with documented links to terrorist organizations. The transfers spanned March 2024 through August 2025, right up to the eve of the pardon and beyond.
These were not small-time operators. The money moved to networks tied to Iran’s regime and its proxy terror apparatus—the very same apparatus arming attacks on U.S. forces and allies. This is sanctions evasion on an industrial scale, the kind that directly undermines American foreign policy and puts American lives at risk. Crypto was supposed to be the future. Turns out, for the ayatollahs, it became a sanctions-busting superhighway.
Firing the Whistleblowers
The investigators who found this weren’t rookies. Several were senior leaders in Binance’s own financial crime and sanctions evasion teams. Multiple came from actual law enforcement backgrounds in Europe and Asia. They did their jobs, flagged the transactions through proper internal channels, and documented potential violations of U.S. and global sanctions.
Weeks later—at least four, by some counts five—got fired or suspended. Binance’s excuse? Technical violations of internal data-handling protocols. Not the content of what they found. The content. The $1.7 billion to terror-linked accounts.
Weeks after Trump pardoned Binance’s founder, the company dismantled a probe into Iran financing and suspended the investigators; Binance denied allegation. https://t.co/IZJfL9ABsm via @WSJ
— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) February 23, 2026
This is retaliation, plain and simple. You catch the company red-handed funding America’s enemies, and the response is to eliminate the messengers. Classic move from outfits that think rules are for the little guy.
Binance now claims its overall exposure to sanctioned entities dropped 97 percent since early 2024. They brag about hiring more compliance staff and investing in tech. Great story. Too bad the internal team that actually followed the money got shown the door right after doing exactly that.
America First Means No Exceptions for Terror Cash
This is bigger than one exchange. Crypto can drive innovation and financial freedom, but it cannot become a get-out-of-jail-free card for funding terrorists. Iran is not some distant abstract threat. Their regime and proxies kill Americans and our allies. Every dollar that slips through weakens our sanctions, funds more rockets and drones, and lengthens the fight.
Trump was right to pardon CZ if the prior case smelled like selective prosecution. But pardons do not grant immunity for future crimes or ongoing negligence. If Binance is still enabling $1.7 billion pipelines to Iranian terror networks after promising reform, then the company needs real accountability—aggressive Treasury enforcement, license reviews, the full national security toolkit. No more slaps on the wrist.
The whistleblowers did their duty. They deserve protection, not pink slips. The American people deserve an exchange that puts U.S. security ahead of trading volume. And the Iranian regime deserves to feel the full weight of every tool we have to starve their terror machine.
This mess should be a wake-up call. America First means securing the border, securing the dollar, and securing the new frontiers of finance so they don’t become weapons against us. Binance had its second chance. Time to prove they deserve a third—or watch the door slam shut for good.