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President Donald Trump pardoned three high-profile crypto figures between January and October 2025, triggering allegations that non-public monetary ties influenced executive clemency decisions.
Trump granted a full and unconditional pardon to Ross Ulbricht on Jan. 21, 2025, releasing the creator of the Silk Street market after greater than a decade behind bars.
Ulbricht had been serving a double life sentence since 2013 for working a web based market that prosecutors mentioned facilitated roughly $1 billion in unlawful transactions involving medication corresponding to heroin, cocaine, and LSD, largely settled in Bitcoin (*10*)BTC).
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Trump introduced the pardon on Fact Social, saying he personally known as Ulbricht’s mom and credited help from libertarian voters.
He described these concerned in Ulbricht’s prosecution as having “weaponized the federal government.”
Following the pardon, Ulbricht publicly praised Trump as “a person of his phrase.”
Blockchain evaluation later confirmed wallets linked to Ulbricht nonetheless held about 430 BTC, valued at greater than $45 million on the time.
On March 27, 2025, Trump pardoned Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed, and former BitMEX government Gregory Dwyer.
The 4 had pleaded responsible to violating the Financial institution Secrecy Act for failing to determine anti-money laundering and know-your-customer packages whereas working BitMEX.
Prosecutors accused them of working BitMEX as a “cash laundering platform.”
The co-founders had been ordered to pay $10 million every in civil fines, whereas BitMEX itself paid $100 million.
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Hayes tweeted “Thanks POTUS” after the announcement whereas Delo mentioned the choice validated their long-standing declare that the case was extreme.
Hayes has since continued to advertise a bullish long-term outlook for Bitcoin, together with a $1 million value goal tied to international financial growth.
Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao on October 23, 2025, sparking essentially the most intense backlash of all crypto pardons.
CZ pleaded responsible in November 2023 to enabling cash laundering whereas CEO of Binance, paid a $50 million high quality, and served 4 months in jail.
