U.S. President Donald Trump does not intend to grant a pardon to former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried, according to a White House spokesperson, shutting down months of speculation that the imprisoned crypto founder was attempting to secure clemency through a public political pivot.
The spokesperson pointed to Trump’s earlier public remarks in which he ruled out pardons for several high-profile figures, including Bankman-Fried, and reiterated that no clemency is currently under consideration, according to Fotune.
The president retains final authority over all pardon decisions.
Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence following his conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges tied to the collapse of FTX, once one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
Appeals Fight Continues
The former executive is continuing to challenge his conviction in federal appeals court, arguing that the trial process and sentencing were flawed.
His legal team has not publicly commented on the latest signal from the White House.
Bankman-Fried was sentenced in 2024 after a jury found he orchestrated a multibillion-dollar scheme that diverted customer funds to affiliated trading firm Alameda Research, a collapse that triggered widespread losses across the digital-asset sector and intensified regulatory scrutiny of crypto markets.
Political Repositioning From Prison
In recent months, Bankman-Fried’s public messaging has taken on a sharply different tone from the political profile he maintained before FTX’s failure.
Once one of the largest donors to Democratic candidates and political action committees in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, he has begun issuing statements critical of the U.S. justice system and aligned with themes commonly associated with Trump and his supporters.
Posts attributed to him have praised the president and echoed arguments about judicial bias and free-speech concerns.
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Because federal inmates do not have direct access to social media, the messages are relayed through approved communications and published by a third party.
Court documents disclosed during his trial showed that Bankman-Fried had considered a shift toward Republican media outreach even before his arrest, as FTX’s financial position deteriorated.
Long-Shot Bid For Clemency
Despite the rhetorical shift, his prospects for a pardon have long been viewed in Washington as remote.
His prominence as a major donor to Democratic campaigns, combined with the scale of losses tied to FTX’s collapse and his continued unpopularity within much of the crypto industry, has limited any political constituency in favor of clemency.
Trump has issued a series of controversial pardons since returning to office and has pledged a more favorable regulatory environment for digital-asset companies, including a rollback of several enforcement actions launched under the previous administration.
That policy shift had fueled speculation that Bankman-Fried might attempt to appeal directly to the president.
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