Sam Bankman-Fried Files Official Pardon Request with Trump

Sam Bankman-Fried filed a formal clemency petition Monday June 8 with the Office of the Pardon Attorney. The former FTX chief, serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and conspiracy, is now officially placing his fate in Donald Trump’s hands. The move comes despite the president flatly dismissing the idea in January 2026, saying Bankman-Fried “should not count on” clemency. The case is now listed as “pending” in Department of Justice records.

Key Takeaways

• Sam Bankman-Fried filed his clemency petition on June 8, now under review at the Pardon Attorney’s office
• He is serving a 25-year sentence for the FTX fraud and the 8 billion dollar hole in customer accounts
• Trump had already stated in January that Bankman-Fried “should not count on” receiving a pardon

A formal move after months of mixed signals

The petition surfaced Monday June 8 in Department of Justice records. The file is officially “pending” with the Office of the Pardon Attorney, the body that reviews clemency requests before forwarding them to the White House. Details remain undisclosed, but the process has now started.

Sam Bankman-Fried has been serving a 25-year sentence since 2024 after his conviction for fraud and conspiracy. Federal prosecutors had built their case around the scheme that brought down FTX in November 2022, exposing an 8 billion dollar hole in customer accounts and triggering one of the largest collapses in crypto history.

The pardon filing runs in parallel to the appeal Bankman-Fried is already pursuing in federal court. The two tracks are independent but reinforce each other. A successful appeal makes clemency unnecessary, while a presidential grant would render the appeal moot. The dual-track strategy signals the defense is now playing every card available.

When asked by FOX Business if he actually wanted a pardon, Bankman-Fried did not hesitate. “Absolutely. It would be obviously, you know, ultimately up to the president, not up to me.” The statement reads as a public greenlight for the formal petition that landed this week.

Trump closed a door he could still reopen

In a January 2026 interview with the New York Times, Donald Trump had explicitly ruled out clemency for Bankman-Fried. The president said the former FTX boss “should not count on” a pardon, grouping him among defendants he did not intend to release. The position was clear. For context, see our earlier piece on Cryptonomic: Bitcoin ETF Assets Return to Pre-Trump Levels.

That public stance did not stop the Bankman-Fried family from probing the terrain. Sam’s parents, both Stanford Law professors, reportedly held multiple informal conversations with Trump associates to gauge clemency prospects. The official petition is the visible tip of a months-long lobbying effort.

Bankman-Fried himself has executed a striking public alignment with the Trump administration in recent months. He has voiced support for the Iran strikes, praised the new leadership at the SEC, and even endorsed the president’s strategy on gas prices. The sequence reads as a targeted communications operation aimed at one decision maker.

The crypto precedent also tilts in his favor symbolically. Trump has already pardoned Ross Ulbricht, Changpeng Zhao and the BitMEX co-founders, all crypto figures who had served or were serving federal time. A presidential logic exists. Whether Bankman-Fried fits inside it is the open question.

Also on Cryptonomic:

• Strategy Buys 1,550 Bitcoin After Selling Just 32 BTC
• Bitcoin Slips Below $63,000 as Iran-Israel Tensions Lift Oil
• Worldcoin: Arthur Hayes Dumps Entire Position as WLD Plunges

Why this case matters for crypto markets

In the short term, the news does not move markets. FTX has been in liquidation for three years, and creditor assets are administered independently of Bankman-Fried’s criminal fate. No active token or exchange is directly exposed to the outcome. Price impact stays symbolic.

The real issue lies elsewhere. The sequence of Trump’s crypto pardons is sketching an increasingly readable policy. An administration open to executives who broke the law as long as they embody the frontier of innovation. A pardon for Bankman-Fried would stretch that signal to a clear case of outright fraud, which would raise pointed questions among foreign regulators and institutional allocators.

Over three to six months, two variables will dominate. First, the timing of the Pardon Attorney, which can leave a case pending for years before issuing any recommendation. Second, the trajectory of relations between Trump and the crypto industry, which now carries far more weight in Washington than under the prior administration.

For investors, the real signal is not the pardon itself but what it would say about the balance of power between regulators and the crypto sphere. A favorable outcome for Bankman-Fried would mark a peak of political alignment, with consequences for banking counterparties and for how regulators interpret existing rules. A firm rejection would, on the contrary, close the symbolic window that the previous crypto pardons had opened.

Follow the story on Cryptonomic.