President Donald Trump has officially pardoned Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed—the three co-founders of embattled crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX. The pardons were confirmed by a White House official on Friday and were reportedly signed a day earlier.
The trio had faced federal charges stemming from a 2020 investigation led by the U.S. Department of Justice, which accused BitMEX of willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) by failing to implement required anti-money laundering safeguards and know-your-customer protocols. At the time, prosecutors alleged the platform openly courted anonymous users, sidestepping financial compliance norms.
The pardons, though expected by some following recent policy moves by the Trump administration, reflect the administration’s continuing pivot toward a more permissive, industry-aligned approach to crypto-related enforcement actions.
Background on the Convictions
The pardoned BitMEX co-founders—Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed—had been at the center of a landmark crypto enforcement case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2020. Prosecutors accused the trio of failing to implement basic anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) measures, in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)—a foundational financial compliance law in the United States.
Federal officials described BitMEX as a platform that effectively enabled anonymous trading with little to no oversight, characterizing the exchange as a conduit for illicit finance. The case was seen at the time as a watershed moment in the U.S. government’s evolving regulatory crackdown on crypto platforms operating outside traditional banking frameworks.
All three executives pleaded guilty, receiving probationary sentences: Hayes was sentenced to two years, Delo to 30 months, and Reed to 18 months. A fourth BitMEX executive, Gregory Dwyer, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months probation. In a separate action, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined BitMEX $100 million in 2021 for violating multiple provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act.
Following news of the pardons, Delo released a public statement defending the firm’s legacy and questioning the basis for the original charges:
“This full and unconditional pardon by President Trump is a vindication of the position we have always held—that BitMEX, my co-founders, and I should never have been charged with a criminal offense through an obscure, antiquated law,” Delo said.
“As the most successful crypto exchange of its kind, we were wrongfully made to serve as an example, sacrificed for political reasons and used to send inconsistent regulatory signals.”
A Wave of Presidential Pardons
The pardons of the BitMEX co-founders appear to be part of a broader and deliberate recalibration of the U.S. government’s stance on crypto enforcement under the Trump administration. The move came just one day after Trevor Milton, the convicted founder of Nikola Motors, also received a pardon. Earlier this year, Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the now-defunct darknet marketplace Silk Road, was granted a high-profile pardon after serving over a decade of a double life sentence without parole.
These high-stakes reversals have sent a clear message: the Trump White House is increasingly willing to forgive early crypto actors and tech founders previously targeted amid regulatory uncertainty.
The pardon trend has sparked new speculation around other prominent figures, including Sam Bankman-Fried, the former FTX CEO, who was recently moved to solitary confinement after participating in an unsanctioned interview with Tucker Carlson—widely viewed as an effort to seek public sympathy and possible clemency.
Meanwhile, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the former head of Binance, remains the only individual in U.S. history to have served prison time for a single Bank Secrecy Act violation—the same charge levied against the BitMEX executives. Though Zhao has publicly denied seeking a pardon, he recently acknowledged the irony of his sentence, expressing his desire for clemency:
“No felon would mind a pardon, especially being the only person in U.S. history ever sentenced to prison for a single BSA charge.”
Quick Facts:
- President Donald Trump has pardoned Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, the co-founders of crypto exchange BitMEX, for Bank Secrecy Act violations.
- The three executives had pleaded guilty in 2022 and received probation and financial penalties for failing to implement AML and KYC controls.
- The BitMEX case was one of the most high-profile crypto enforcement actions in U.S. history, later resulting in a $100 million CFTC settlement.
- The pardons reflect the Trump administration’s broader shift toward a more lenient, pro-crypto regulatory stance.
