Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the bankrupt exchange FTX, is currently in federal prison. He is serving a 25-year sentence for one of the most high-profile financial frauds in U.S. history.
But the crypto market is once again discussing his future. The reason was an application for a presidential pardon, which the former head of FTX submitted through the U.S. Department of Justice.
This week, his name appeared in the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s database. It states that the petition has already been registered and is under review.
| Applicant | Pardon Case Number | Registration Number | Requested Measure | Status | Year of Submission | Date of Decision |
| Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried | P338490 | — | Pardon After Full Sentence Served | Under Review | 2026 | — |
SBF Seeks Pardon From Trump. Source: U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
Bankman-Fried’s family and his lawyers have been trying for several months to secure his release. Now they have taken another step and filed an official pardon petition.
Moreover, they did this earlier than is usually customary. Typically, such requests are made only several years after sentencing, but the former FTX head’s team decided not to wait.
However, there is little serious hope for success so far. Donald Trump has already made it clear several times that he does not intend to pardon Bankman-Fried.
On Polymarket this scenario is also hardly believed. Platform participants estimate the probability that SBF will receive a presidential pardon by the end of the year at only 8%.
Probability That Sam Bankman-Fried Will Receive a Pardon. Source: Polymarket
Speculative Rally of the Ghost Token
Political analysts and prediction markets hardly believe in a pardon. But for the crypto market, the mere fact of submitting the application was enough.
The main beneficiary of this news was FTT — the token of the FTX exchange, which was once part of the platform’s ecosystem.
Now FTT has essentially turned into a ghost token. After the collapse of FTX in November 2022, the exchange ceased operations, the team disbanded, and the ecosystem no longer exists as it once did.
But the crypto market does not always look at fundamental factors. Sometimes, a loud news trigger and speculation around it are enough for growth.
After news of Bankman-Fried’s petition the price of FTT jumped more than 50% in a day and reached $0.35. Just a few days earlier, the token had fallen to $0.2141.
Trading activity also spiked sharply. The daily trading volume of FTT increased by more than 600% and exceeded $16 million.
About a third of all trades were on Binance. Ironically, this exchange played a key role in the fall of FTX in 2022. Back then, Binance began selling its FTT holdings, after which users rushed to withdraw funds from the platform en masse.
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It seems that some traders now view FTT as a bet on the fate of Bankman-Fried. The logic is simple: if a possible pardon even briefly revives interest in FTX assets, there is money to be made.
But this scenario itself changes nothing for the exchange.
Even if Bankman-Fried receives a pardon, FTX will not start operating again. The FTT token will not get new features, and creditors will not start receiving their money faster.
For now, this all looks like a typical speculative story. The big news pushed traders to buy, even though nothing has changed around the project itself.
Bankman-Fried Has His Own View on the FTX Collapse
In March 2024, the court found the former head of FTX guilty on a number of charges, including fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering.
The investigation claimed that client funds from the exchange were used to support Alameda Research. In addition, investors and creditors were misled about the company’s real financial situation.
Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison. In addition, he will have to spend three years under supervision after release, and the amount of forfeiture exceeded $11 billion.
SBF himself disagrees with these conclusions and continues to defend his version of events.
He claims that FTX was brought down by a lack of liquidity, not a lack of funds per se. In his view, the subsequent asset recovery work showed that the situation was not as hopeless as it was portrayed during bankruptcy.
Bankman-Fried also insists that the company still had assets and investments that could have been used to settle with clients. And he considers the decision to hand over control of the bankruptcy process to outside specialists a mistake.
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This option looks much livelier and closer to the style found in your uploaded articles. There, the author usually tells a story rather than retelling court materials.
But a completely different version was presented in court.
The investigation stated that FTX client funds were secretly transferred to Alameda Research. These funds were used to cover losses, investments, real estate purchases, political donations, and debt repayments.
Former company executives also testified against Bankman-Fried — Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh. All three cooperated with the investigation and testified in court.
His version was also rejected by former chief legal counsel FTX Ryan Miller.
On X, he stated that in the fall of 2022, the company simply did not have enough funds to settle with clients. According to him, in the last days before the collapse, employees were still trying to figure out how many assets the exchange had left and were simultaneously searching for money that could save the situation.
Trump Pardons Spark Talk but Do Not Guarantee Success
Despite all attempts to secure his release, Bankman-Fried has little chance so far.
In January 2026, Donald Trump told The New York Times in an interview that he does not intend to consider a pardon for the founder of FTX. Later, the White House confirmed that this position has not changed.
At the same time, Trump has already used his powers to pardon well-known figures from the crypto industry. Among such decisions was the pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in October 2025, as well as earlier commutations for Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht and BitMEX executives, including Arthur Hayes.
But the case of Bankman-Fried is perceived differently.
In previous cases, the focus was more often on disputes over regulation, violations of anti-money laundering rules, or criminal justice reform.
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FTX , however, remains for many an example of outright misappropriation of client funds. The collapse of the exchange hit millions of retail investors, so the idea of a pardon causes strong irritation even among some supporters of the crypto industry.
Senator Bernie Moreno spoke sharply:
“He should not be pardoned. He should spend a very, very long time in prison.”
A similar reaction was seen within the crypto community. One analyst wrote that a pardon for SBF would send a dangerous signal to the market:
“A pardon for SBF will not just free one fraudster. It will give the green light to the next thousands. The message will be: steal billions, do a MAGA rebranding from prison, and walk free.”
