Binance's billionaire founder to find out if prison time is coming — here's what lawyers are expecting

Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, heads to a Seattle courtroom on Tuesday to learn whether the crimes he admitted to committing will land him in prison for an extended sentence.

In November, Zhao pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering at Binance. As part of his plea deal with the Department of Justice, Zhao agreed to step down as CEO. For months, U.S. District Judge Richard Jones has been weighing the appropriate punishment for Zhao, also known as CZ.

Once a titan of the crypto sector, Zhao grew Binance into the world's largest centralized crypto exchange globally. The company held assets of more than $65 billion by the time he stepped down. Unlike rival exchange FTX, which collapsed into bankruptcy when founder Sam Bankman-Fried was criminally charged, Binance has continued to operate.

Assets on the Binance platform totaled more than $122 billion, according to blockchain data firm Nansen, a roughly 88% jump that follows a sharp increase in crypto prices in recent months. 

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