The disgraced FTX founder, serving a 25-year prison sentence for a multi-count fraud conviction, has filed his first formal post-sentencing legal move requesting a Trump pardon.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced FTX founder serving a 25-year prison sentence, has officially filed a request for a presidential pardon with the Trump White House, according to a Monday court filing first reported by CoinDesk.

The petition is Bankman-Fried’s first publicly disclosed post-sentencing legal move. He was convicted in November 2023 on seven counts, including two counts of wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit commodities fraud. Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced him in March 2024 to 25 years in federal prison, ordering forfeiture of approximately $11 billion in assets. Bankman-Fried is currently held at FCI Terminal Island in California after being transferred from a Brooklyn detention facility.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

The pardon request lands during a period of unusually active presidential clemency activity around crypto figures. President Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht in January 2025, fulfilling a 2024 campaign promise. He has also issued clemency or signaled openness toward additional crypto-related cases, including the BitMEX founders. Bankman-Fried’s family has reportedly retained Republican-aligned lobbyists in recent months. His father, Joseph Bankman, and mother, Barbara Fried, both Stanford law professors, have publicly advocated for sentencing reform and reduced terms for non-violent financial crimes.

Bankman-Fried’s case differs structurally from Ulbricht’s. The FTX collapse caused roughly $8 billion in customer losses, with funds traced through Alameda Research used for political donations, real estate, sports sponsorships, and venture investments. The sentencing judge cited Bankman-Fried’s “exceptional flexibility with the truth” during trial testimony as an aggravating factor. By contrast, Ulbricht’s case involved a marketplace facilitating illegal drug sales but no direct misappropriation of customer assets.

The political dimension is real. Bankman-Fried was a major Democratic donor before his arrest, having contributed approximately $40 million to Democratic candidates and PACs during the 2022 cycle. 

He also testified in early 2024 about additional planned Republican donations he had concealed at the time. Whether the Trump administration’s crypto-friendly stance extends to pardoning the figure responsible for the industry’s most damaging fraud will be a test of where the boundaries fall. No timeline has been set for a White House response.