- U.S. President Donald Trump has pardoned BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed.
- CNBC reports that Trump also pardoned Nikola founder Trevor Milton.
- Earlier this year, the president granted a pardon to Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht.
U.S. President Donald Trump has granted pardons to three co-founders of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX: Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed.
These pardons, issued on March 27, 2025, reflect growing presidential support for cryptocurrency figures and follow an earlier pardon this year for Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road marketplace.
Trump pardons BitMEX co-founders
According to CNBC, the latest pardon by President Trump involved the BitMEX trio, who faced federal charges in 2020.
The charges included allegations related to money laundering. The U.S. Department of Justice accused the founders of violating the Bank Secrecy Act by knowingly allowing U.S. customers to use the platform without adequate anti-money laundering (AML) controls, in some cases requiring only an email address to participate.
Although BitMEX publicly withdrew from the U.S. market, authorities characterized that move as deceptive, alleging the platform secretly continued to serve U.S. users.
Samuel Reed pleaded guilty in 2022 and paid a $10 million fine, and the exchange itself faced legal consequences, pleading guilty in 2025 to Bank Secrecy Act violations and accepting a $100 million penalty.
Hayes and Delo were also accused of lax oversight that prosecutors said enabled illicit financial activity on the platform.
Delo surrendered to U.S. authorities in 2021. In addition to the three BitMEX co-founders, Trump issued a high-profile pardon to Trevor Milton, the founder of electric truck-maker Nikola, who had been convicted of securities fraud.
The decision to pardon the BitMEX executives prompted some commentators and cryptocurrency supporters to speculate whether other high-profile industry figures might also be considered for clemency, including Changpeng Zhao, the former founder and CEO of Binance.
CZ, who stepped down as Binance CEO at the end of 2023, served a four-month prison term in the United States. At the same time, reports have circulated that Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, asked associates to seek a pardon from President Trump on his behalf.
These developments highlight the political and legal intersection between the federal government and the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency industry, raising questions about accountability, regulatory enforcement, and the role of presidential clemency in white-collar and financial crime cases.