Trump Weighs 250 Pardons as Crypto Founders Push for Clemency

US President Donald Trump is reportedly considering pardoning 250 people to commemorate the country’s 250th birthday on July 4, according to The Wall Street Journal.

An official announcement could come on June 14, Trump’s birthday, or during the Independence Day event on July 4, the WSJ reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

However, the pardons are still in the preliminary stages and have yet to be confirmed. More than 16,000 formal requests for presidential pardons were submitted last year. 

On his first day back in office last year, Trump issued more than 1,500 pardons to people involved with the storming of the US Capitol in 2021. Several jailed crypto founders and their supporters have been advocating for pardons from Trump since his inauguration.

Cointelegraph has contacted the White House for comment.

FTX, Samourai Wallet founders want pardons

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted on all seven counts connected to the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024. He has waged a social media campaign in the hopes of getting a pardon, but Trump reportedly ruled it out earlier this year. 

Keonne Rodriguez, one of the developers behind the crypto-mixing protocol Samourai Wallet, has also publicly expressed hopes for a pardon. 

Trump said last December he would review Rodriguez’s case and explore a pardon. There is also a petition that has attracted 16,082 signatures as of Thursday.

Source: Keonne Rodriguez

Meanwhile, at least two petitions calling for a pardon for the Tornado Cash founders, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, are currently live; however, they have only 22 and 9 signatures, respectively. Storm has not publicly asked for a pardon. 

Storm was convicted last August on charges of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and is still facing charges of money laundering and sanctions violation conspiracy. Semenov is considered on the run and is wanted by the FBI.

The case against Rodriguez and Storm has been closely followed by crypto advocates, many of whom argue they shouldn’t be held responsible for the actions of third parties using their software. 

Some crypto pardons already granted

Several crypto founders have already received pardons during Trump’s second term as president. 

Last year, the White House pardoned the co-founders of crypto exchange BitMEX: Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed, who all pleaded guilty to failing to maintain anti-money laundering and know-your-customer programs in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act.

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Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was also pardoned in 2025. He already served a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to one count of violating the US Bank Secrecy Act for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at Binance.

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was one of the first to receive a pardon from Trump in January 2025 for his life sentence in connection with his operation of the dark web marketplace.

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