Zhao’s release comes two days ahead of his scheduled release date this Sunday, Sep. 29. The BOP is legally allowed to release prisoners early if their release date falls on a weekend or holiday.

In April, Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) by failing to set up an adequate know-your-customer (KYC) program at Binance. As part of his guilty plea, Zhao also agreed to pay a $50 million fine and step down as CEO of the crypto exchange. The exchange agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine to various U.S. regulators to settle related charges.

Though custodial sentences for violations of the BSA are unusual (former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, who pleaded guilty to similar charges in 2022 was sentenced only to probation), Zhao’s four-month sentence was lenient compared to the three years sought by federal prosecutors.

The judge overseeing Zhao’s case, U.S. District Judge Richard Jones of the Western District of Washington, seemed to be swayed by Zhao’s squeaky-clean criminal record and positive reputation – aided by 161 letters of support from his friends, family, and colleagues.

Zhao – formerly known as Inmate #88087-510 – served three months in a low-security prison, Lompoc II, on California’s central coast. In August, he was moved to a halfway house in San Pedro, California.

At an estimated net worth of $25.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires’ Index, he is believed to be the richest person to ever go to prison in the U.S.

A spokesperson for Zhao declined to comment when reached by CoinDesk.

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Cheyenne Ligon

On the news team at CoinDesk, Cheyenne focuses on crypto regulation and crime. Cheyenne is originally from Houston, Texas. She studied political science at Tulane University in Louisiana. In December 2021, she graduated from CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where she focused on business and economics reporting. She has no significant crypto holdings.