Trump pardons BitMEX founders, is ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Roger Ver next?

Vitalik Buterin, Ross Ulbricht, and Tucker Carlson are among those urging President Donald Trump to pardon Roger Ver, aka Bitcoin Jesus.

Known as Bitcoin Jesus for his early advocacy of Bitcoin, Ver faces up to 109 years in prison on tax charges, including allegations of evading $48 million in taxes. Despite renouncing his U.S. citizenship in 2014 to avoid prosecution, Ver’s legal troubles resurfaced when he was arrested in Spain in 2024. But following the president’s earlier pardons of figures like Ulbricht and BitMEX co-founders, observers wonder whether Ver’s would catch a break. Is a pardon on the way, or will Ver’s legal troubles continue?

Read on for a closer look.

Crypto cronies

After Trump embraced cryptocurrency, many crypto leaders rallied to support him by donating funds to his inauguration and hobnobbing at galas.

Trump also , which industry brass celebrated.

In return, Trump signed an order to stockpile tokens and swiftly acted in favor of the industry. Under Trump-appointed SEC chair Mark Uyeda, investigations into several cryptocurrency companies, including Immutable, Crypto.com, Ripple, and Coinbase, were dismissed.

In a notable move on Thursday, March 27, Trump pardoned BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, who had pleaded guilty to federal charges related to money laundering and regulatory violations. The trio was convicted for failing to implement anti-money laundering measures at BitMEX, which prosecutors had labeled a “money laundering platform.” Reed had also violated the Bank Secrecy Act and paid a $10 million fine. But under Trump, it seems all is forgiven.

This has sparked speculation on whether Ver, a prominent figure in the crypto world, could also receive the same courtesy.

Ver, a Silicon Valley native with a libertarian streak, was deeply involved in the early days of cryptocurrency, investing in companies like Kraken, Ripple, and Blockchain.com. In 2017, Ver hyped Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as more suitable for everyday payments.

Ver’s past

In 2000, by the age of 20, Ver began to participate in libertarian party debates.

During these debates, he made critical statements about the agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, calling them “murderers” and referencing their involvement in the scandalous Waco Siege in which dozens of children were killed in a standoff between FBI and ATF agents and Branch Davidian cult followers. Ver didn’t know that ATF agents were present during these debates.

In the 2000s, Ver became involved in e-commerce. On top of tech enterprises, Ver was selling firecrackers on eBay. After selling unlicensed firecrackers in 2001, he was charged and spent 10 months in prison. The fact that he was locked in jail instead of being fined or notified about the necessity of obtaining a license led Ver to think that the case was politically motivated and that his criticism of ATF was the real reason behind his prosecution. Without fear of further persecution, Ver left the U.S. after his post-prison probation ended.

By 2011, Ver learned about Bitcoin and became one of its first investors. He also advocated for Bitcoin long before it went mainstream, with multi-million investments and national leaders talking about its importance for the future of their countries.

The key points of Ver’s advocacy for Bitcoin were the financial freedom of individuals and the stopping of government and banks from interfering in people’s lives.

The legal fight

Since February 2014, Ver has been a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis. He claims that he had to renounce his U.S. citizenship after long-lasting targeting from the U.S. government.

In April 2024, he was indicted and arrested in Spain on charges of U.S. tax evasion and mail fraud. Ver is accused of dodging $48 million in taxes after earning up to half a billion dollars through cryptocurrencies.

Read more: ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Roger Ver arrested on $50m tax fraud

According to prosecutors, Ver failed to pay his “exit tax” on 131,000 BTC owned by his two companies when he left the U.S. and provided false info to the law firms filing Ver’s tax returns. Allegedly, he sold his bitcoins in 2017 without notifying the financial attorneys.

Ver clarifies that three charges of mail fraud (combined, punishable by 19 years behind bars) are based on the three letters with his tax returns he sent to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Ver denies he committed crimes such as tax evasion and mail fraud. He insists he was doing his best to comply with the nascent Bitcoin taxation rules, and that his prosecution was politically motivated.

In December, he began his legal fight against the prosecution, denying all the charges. He filed a motion to dismiss charges, but the government rejected it in January.

Ver’s legal team challenged an exit tax as “an unconstitutional burden on the fundamental right to expatriate.” For people like Ver, who have substantial amounts of low-liquidity assets, the exit tax may be prohibitive. The government suggests Ver is a fugitive. He disagrees with this status as he doesn’t hide and didn’t commit crimes for which he is judged while living in the U.S.

On March 1, Ethereum’s Buterin published an X post arguing that the exit tax doesn’t exist in most other countries and called it the “tax-by-citizenship” and “extreme.”

In addition, Buterin mentioned that the IRS obtained some of the information by intimidating Ver’s lawyers. The Ethereum founder added:

“Genuine good faith mistakes should be treated by giving the actor the opportunity to pay back taxes if needed with interest and penalties, not with prosecution.”

Will Bitcoin Jesus be pardoned?

Trump promised to pardon Ross Ulbricht if get elected. Ulbricht, the man behind the Silk Road marketplace charged for money laundering and drug trafficking, is an important figure in the history of Bitcoin as his marketplace drove Bitcoin’s adoption. After the inauguration, Trump indeed pardoned Ulbricht to much acclaim.

Soon, various crypto advocates began to urge Trump to pardon Roger Ver. On Jan. 21, 2025, following the pardon of Ross Ulbricht, an X influencer using the moniker Rothmus published a short post calling for the pardon of Ver to which Elon Musk replied: “will inquire.” This reply gave the community hope for the pardon of Bitcoin Jesus.

On March 17, Marla Maples, Trump’s ex-wife, took to X to share a touching video where people who met Ver tell their stories of his generosity.

It is not clear, though, if the POTUS paid attention to this post.

The hope for a pardon of Ver was seriously undermined on Jan. 26, when Elon Musk suddenly, via an X post, stated that Ver would not be pardoned because he gave up his U.S. citizenship.

The statement drew much criticism, as Musk is not an elected official and cannot decide who to pardon and who not to. He is, however, Trump’s advisor and was a major donor to his “MAGA” campaign.

More than that, the POTUS is not prohibited from pardoning non-U.S. citizens. Finally, many commented that Ver had to renounce his citizenship under pressure from ATF and a U.S. prison sentence.

A few hours after Musk’s tweet, Ver took X to post a video in which he briefly explained why he was prosecuted and asked Trump for a pardon.

In the video, Ver stated that he is American and that renouncing his citizenship was one of the “hardest and saddest decisions [he] ever made.”

After Ulbricht, Hayes, Delo, and Reed received presidential pardons, others, including Angela McArdle, who currently serves as Chair of the national Libertarian Party, called for freeing Ver as well.

“Let’s pray Roger Ver is next!” she declared on Friday.

It remains to be seen whether Musk made skeptical comments over the possibility of Ver’s clemency on Trump’s behalf or if it was only his view of the situation.

At last check Saturday, Trump hasn’t commented on Ver’s situation.

Read more: Trump pardons BitMEX co-founders convicted of financial crimes: report