Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, served 12 years of a double life sentence plus an additional 40 years before being pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump in January, marking the start of a series of other pardons that continue this month.
This feature is a segment of CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2025 list.
Ulbricht was convicted in February 2015 and sentenced in May of the same year for charges including narcotics trafficking, conspiracy, and hacking.
Trump announced his intention to pardon Ulbricht at the Libertarian National Convention in May 2024 and executed the pardon shortly after resuming office this past January, linking it to the backing he received from the Libertarian Party.
“I just contacted the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to inform her that, in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, I was pleased to sign a full and unconditional pardon for her son, Ross,” Trump stated in a Truth Social post at that time.
Trump’s pardons didn’t stop there: In March, he pardoned Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of BitMEX, along with co-founders Samuel Reed and Benjamin Delo, and senior employee Greg Dwyer. In a groundbreaking move for the U.S., he also pardoned HDR Global Trading, the company behind the BitMEX platform. Each had admitted guilt to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
Subsequently, Trump also pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, who pleaded guilty to charges related to the Bank Secrecy Act.
These recent pardons enable Hayes, Zhao, and others to re-enter the U.S. as company representatives and allow BitMEX to easily resume operations in the U.S.
Trump’s list of pardons extends beyond crypto leaders; recently, he has pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández (convicted of conspiring to distribute over 400 tons of narcotics), commuted the sentence of David Gentile (convicted on securities and wire fraud charges tied to a $1.6 billion scheme), and pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar (indicted on bribery charges with a trial slated for next year), among others. Trump initiated the year with a series of pardons for individuals found guilty of offenses associated with the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
It remains uncertain if another crypto executive will receive a pardon, although one has recently embarked on a public relations campaign to seemingly secure a pardon while serving a 25-year sentence and waiting for an appeals court’s decision on a new trial: FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
