BNB sees gains as Binance founder Changpeng Zhao set to be released after 118 days in prison

• Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao will be released from custody on Friday after serving jail time.
• CZ was sentenced to four months in prison in April after pleading guilty to violating US anti-money laundering laws.
• BNB is up over 2%, stretching its weekly gains to nearly 7%.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao will be released from prison on Friday, two days ahead of schedule, due to federal guidelines allowing early releases on weekends.

CZ finishes prison term, set for early release

Binance founder and ex-CEO Changpeng Zhao is set for an early release from prison on Friday after serving time for 118 days. The news, first reported by Fortune Crypto, claims that CZ will walk away from custody with over $60 billion of personal fortune.

CZ has been serving a four-month sentence after pleading guilty to charges, including failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering measures when he was CEO of Binance. In addition to jail time, the court also mandated CZ pay a $50 million personal fine, while Binance received a $4.3 billion penalty.

The release of the ex-Binance CEO has stirred speculation about potential impacts on the cryptocurrency market, particularly regarding Binance Coin (BNB), which has seen gains of nearly 7% in the past 24 hours. 

Despite no longer serving as CEO of Binance, some analysts suggested that Zhao's influence could stabilize or even boost the crypto market as he remains a major influential figure among investors.

Meanwhile, Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm is set to face a court trial after a New York District Judge refused to dismiss his case. 

Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, the founders of Tornado Cash, were both accused of laundering $1 billion in August 2023. They were also accused of supporting a team of hackers known as the Lazarus Group in laundering hundreds of millions of US Dollars through the crypto-mixing platform.

Judge Katherine Polk Failla, who was put in charge of the case, denied Storm's claim that his case should be dismissed because he simply wrote the code for the platform.

Furthermore, the Social Capital Markets team's recent study reveals that crypto-related convictions grew by 267% in the last five years. The growth, which occurred between 2019 to 2023, shows huge success in prosecuting crypto-related crimes, the analysts noted.

The report also indicates a 300% growth in convictions over the last decade, with 272 years of combined prison time being allotted to crypto leaders found guilty.

The increase in crypto-based convictions underscores the recent US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice's (DoJ) crackdown on the crypto industry.