- The pardons erase their convictions for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).
- It is part of a pattern of controversial clemency decisions by Trump, who also pardoned Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht.
US President Donald Trump granted full pardons to Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of crypto exchange BitMEX, along with co-founders Samuel Reed and Benjamin Delo, CNBC first reported.
The White House confirmed the pardons, which erased their convictions for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). This case marked a significant crackdown on crypto exchanges operating without strict compliance measures. On his X account, Hayes thanked Trump for the pardon.
In 2020, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) charged BitMEX executives and its first employee, Gregory Dwyer, with violating the BSA. Prosecutors alleged the exchange allowed customers to trade virtually anonymously, bypassing know-your-customer (KYC) regulations.
BitMEX pleaded guilty to the charges last year, and its founders received fines and probationary sentences. Hayes was sentenced to two years of probation, while Reed and Delo received 18-month and 30-month probation terms, respectively. Dwyer, who was also implicated, served 12 months of probation.
See Related: Crypto Will Come Back Stronger Than Ever, But FTX Won’t Be The Last To Fail – BitMEX’s Arthur Hayes
A Pattern Of Crypto Pardons?
The BitMEX pardons are the latest in a series of Trump’s controversial clemency decisions. Just a day earlier, he pardoned Trevor Milton, the former CEO of Nikola Motors, who was convicted of fraud in 2022. Earlier this year, Trump also pardoned Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, who had been serving a life sentence for his role in operating the darknet marketplace.
Speculation has since emerged over whether other high-profile crypto figures could also seek presidential pardons. Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who served four months in prison for the same BSA violation, has denied actively seeking a pardon but admitted. The BitMEX case was a landmark in crypto enforcement, highlighting the US government’s efforts to impose traditional financial regulations on digital asset platforms.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had also taken action against the exchange, ordering BitMEX to pay a $100 million penalty in 2021 for violating the Commodity Exchange Act and other regulations.
Trump’s decision to grant pardons raises questions about the future of crypto regulation in the US. Some argue that it undermines past efforts to enforce stricter compliance measures, while others see it as a correction to regulatory overreach.
