Biden To Pardon Silk Road And FTX Founders, Polymarket Bets

With President Joe Biden set to leave office on January 20, speculation has arisen on whether he might issue last-minute pardons for high-profile figures like former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.

Cryptocurrency betting platform Polymarket currently assigns a 4% probability to Biden pardoning Bankman-Fried and a 2% chance for Ulbricht. As of January 9, over $5 million in bets have been placed on SBF’s chances, while Ulbricht’s odds have drawn $1.2 million.

Bankman-Fried, who was convicted in 2023 on seven felony counts related to fraud at FTX, is serving a 25-year prison sentence and filed an appeal. Ulbricht, who operated the darknet marketplace Silk Road, received a life sentence without parole in 2015.

In December, Biden commuted the sentences of more than 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also controversially pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, for felony firearm charges.

President-elect Donald Trump, who will take office on January 20, made commuting Ulbricht’s sentence a campaign promise to the crypto industry, though he did not follow through during his first term. Trump has not indicated plans to pardon SBF, who faced bipartisan criticism for his role in FTX’s collapse.

Despite there being no parole in federal cases, Bankman-Fried could reduce his sentence to as low as 12.5 years through the First Step Act, which allows for sentence reduction for nonviolent federal inmates. Although the legislation originally aimed to reduce prison time for minority offenders, it has benefited white-collar criminals as well.

Reports suggest Trump’s advisers pushed for pardoning other figures, such as whistleblower Edward Snowden, but there has been no mention of cryptocurrency-related cases. When asked about pardoning Assange, Trump responded that he was “very seriously” considering it.

Ulbricht has become a martyr for many in the crypto and libertarian communities, who view his harsh sentence as an overreach by the government and a violation of his constitutional rights. In 2018, the Libertarian Party urged then-President Trump to pardon Ulbricht.