No Pardon for Sam Bankman-Fried: White House Confirms

The White House has officially shut the door on any potential pardon for disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Despite all his recent social media posts where the former CEO attempted to align himself with President Trump’s economic policies, administration officials have confirmed there are no plans to offer clemency.

Sam, we’re sorry. Sweet-talking the President of the United States won’t get you a pardon.

Trump has denied a Sam Bankman pardon. pic.twitter.com/1nygg0GNGl

— 0HOUR1 (@0hour1) February 24, 2026

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Following CZ, Sam Also Chases The Pardon, But With a Different Approach

For weeks, Sam Bankman has been executing a strange public strategy to get a pardon. From his cell, the former FTX CEO has been posting near-daily on X, airing grievances about his trial judge and insisting against all evidence that “FTX was always solvent.” More notably, he began praising President Trump’s economic policies and criticizing Democrats: a sharp U-turn for a man who was once one of the largest donors to the Biden campaign.

The strategy seems to have been a Hail Mary attempt to secure a pardon. It didn’t work.

A White House official explicitly stated that Trump has no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried. This aligns with comments Trump made in a January interview with The New York Times, where he lumped SBF in with other figures like Nicolás Maduro, who would not be receiving executive clemency.

This administration has an ambiguous stance on crypto crimes. Just recently, the SafeMoon CEO was sentenced for his role in defrauding investors, and we saw a crypto CEO sentenced for a $200 million Ponzi scheme. The justice system is treating crypto crimes with the severity of traditional financial crimes.

Outside of massive corporate fraud, the legal system is tightening the screws on bad actors and shady influencers. The recent legal rulings involving influencers like BitBoy show that you can’t just say whatever you want to pump bags without consequences.

But not everyone is suffering the same fate.

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Trump Pardoned Changpeng Zhao (CZ) But Not SBF Why?

The refusal to pardon SBF is notable because President Trump has been willing to use his pardon power for crypto figures. He previously pardoned Ross Ulbricht (founder of Silk Road) and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ). This led some to believe SBF might have a chance.

However, the difference lies in the nature of the crime and the political baggage. SBF’s theft of customer funds was compared to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme: a direct theft from retail investors that destroyed trust in the industry. Furthermore, SBF’s history of donating over $5 million to the Biden campaign in 2020 likely made him a toxic candidate for a Trump pardon.

While U.S. lawmakers slam the SEC for overreach and push for a regulatory overhaul that favors innovation, they are drawing a hard line between legitimate business struggles and outright theft. Protecting SBF would have undermined the administration’s narrative of cleaning up the market.

For Sam Bankman-Fried, the options are running out. He is currently serving a 25-year sentence and, while he has an appeal in process, legal experts view his chances of success as slim. His mother recently filed a motion seeking a new trial, but without a presidential pardon, he remains in federal custody.

We are watching to see if this firmness extends to other pending cases. The rejection of SBF’s campaign signals that the government is happy to let the courts handle crypto fraud without interference.

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