Despite Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) best efforts to convince President Donald Trump to grant him a pardon, the latest update from Washington DC isn’t looking good for the FTX founder and convicted felon.
SBF stole over $8 billion from his customers, and was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. For months, the convicted fraudster has flooded X with pro-Trump posts, blaming his conviction on “Biden’s lawfare machine” and praising MAGA policies.
However, members of Congress on either side of the aisle are less than impressed.
Senator Bernie Moreno, a pro-crypto Republican, told Politico, “The guy’s a piece of ***t. He shouldn’t be pardoned.”
Meanwhile, Senator Cynthia Lummis, a pro-crypto Democrat, expressed hope that Trump wouldn’t fall for SBF’s transparently self-interested rhetoric.
Mike Flood of Nebraska, another pro-crypto Republican, reacted with disbelief. “He crashed the market. He engaged in massive fraud,” Floodsaid. “Wall Street’s not bringing him back to fix anything,” he said.
Democratic Congressman Sam Liccardo piled on, cynically saying that only a large enough payout for a corrupt pardon would do the trick.
Painting on MAGA lipstick and saying whatever it takes
SBF’s X account, operated by a friend as a proxy for his Bureau of Prisons-permitted communication, has praised a host of Trump’s policies about which SBF has little understanding, including the new TrumpRX drug pricing initiative and “deep state” undermining of MAGA policies.
Out of the blue, SBF has praised Trump’s social media companies. “Dems like censoring ‘misinfo’ on social media. Truth Social & GETTR have always put free speech first.”
SBF discussed sharing a cell block with Sean “Diddy” Combs, and blamed his conviction on a “Clinton-appointed” Democrat judge.
He also sat for an unauthorized jailhouse interview with Tucker Carlson last year in a clear attempt to argue for a pardon. That interview reportedly landed him in solitary confinement.
SBF’s parents, ex-Stanford professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, have reportedly consulted with Kory Langhofer, a lawyer who worked on Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns.
Unfortunately for him, none of his pardon attempts have worked. Indeed, Trump told The New York Times in January 2026 that he doesn’t plan to grant his pardon request.
A White House spokesperson reiterated to Fortune in February that Trump’s position hasn’t changed.
Read more: Sam Bankman-Fried had a plan to get out of prison, and he’s following it
Other crypto criminals received pardons
While SBF languishes in prison, Trump has pardoned a handful of crypto-adjacent criminals in the past 10 months.
Ross Ulbricht, founder of the narcotics and firearm marketplace Silk Road, walked free on Trump’s second day in office after serving over a decade.
Three BitMEX co-founders who operated a secret trading company that benefited from leveraged customer liquidations, and who pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, received full pardons in March 2025.
Finally, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who served four months for money laundering violations, got his presidential pardon last October. Binance facilitated a $2 billion investment into Trump’s World Liberty Financial stablecoin shortly before CZ’s pardon.
Of course, SBF’s crimes are in a different category. A jury convicted him on seven counts of fraud and conspiracies and prosecutors called it “one of the largest financial frauds in history.”
SBF directed co-conspirators to alter FTX’s trading account so that Alameda Research could drain customer funds and use leverage on an unlimited basis.
Three associates, including his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, testified that SBF ordered them to commit fraud.
The crypto industry spent four years scrubbing his stain off digital asset legislation.
Senator Lummis publicly dismissed his endorsement of the crypto market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, in February while Senator Elizabeth Warren said SBF’s endorsement should “set off alarm bells.”
Although Warren and Lummis agree on almost nothing when it comes to crypto, they agree on this.
A tough pardon to sell
The weight of SBF’s pardon request far exceeds any prior request.
CZ pleaded guilty to compliance failures while BitMEX ex-CEO Arthur Hayes neglected anti-money laundering protocols.
Although both men had equity stakes in trading companies who profited from trades on their exchanges, their criminal indictments didn’t involve any claims of customer losses. Their offenses were technical.
In contrast, Bankman-Fried stole $8 billion from customers. As such, Trump has said no to his pardon request, the White House has reiterated this stance, and many members of Congress are also in agreement.
Of course, Trump often changes his mind, and there are still three years left in his term.
