FTX Co-Founder Bankman-Fried Requests Trump Pardon–FTT Soars 45%

Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder and former CEO of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, moved forward with a new legal effort on Monday by filing a request for a presidential pardon from President Trump.

Bankman-Fried’s Pardon Bid

Bloomberg reported that Bankman-Fried submitted an application to the Office of the Pardon Attorney within the US Department of Justice (DOJ), seeking what the site describes as a “pardon after completion of sentence.” 

Later on Monday, during an exclusive conversation with FOX Business correspondent Susan Li, Bankman-Fried said he “absolutely” wants a presidential pardon. When Li asked whether he would expect to seek one from the White House, he agreed. 

“Absolutely,” he said, adding that the decision ultimately rests with the president rather than him. Asked if his family or people he has been in contact with are lobbying the administration on his behalf, the FTX co-founder declined to confirm, stating, “I can’t speak for them.”

In March 2024, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison after a jury found him guilty on two counts of wire fraud and five counts of conspiracy tied to the fall of his crypto empire. 

The court also concluded that FTX customers lost $8 billion, equity investors associated with FTX lost $1.7 billion, and lenders to the Alameda Research hedge fund—Bankman-Fried’s firm—lost $1.3 billion.

FTX Token Rallies 45%

Despite the conviction and long sentence, Bankman-Fried has continued to argue that the case against him was unfair. He told Li that he believes FTX customers have ultimately been repaid and pointed to improvements in bankruptcy outcomes that he said have been helped, at least in part, by a recovery in cryptocurrency markets. 

“I didn’t steal user funds either,” he said, adding that customers have been repaid, “now 170% or so on their deposits.” He described the situation as one of the few cases where the platform was reportedly over-collateralized—meaning customers were more than fully made whole—yet he said prosecutors still pursued criminal charges.

Notably, the move sparked a major surge in the price of FTX’s native token, FTT. On Monday, it recorded a massive 45% rally, reaching around $0.33 by the time this piece was written. However, the token’s recovery still leaves it 99.5% below its all-time high of $84, which was reached at the peak of the exchange’s operations. 

Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com