Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has ramped up his social media praise for US president Donald Trump while taking aim at former president Joe Biden, just days after Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, was released from federal custody.
Since Bankman-Fried’s February 2025 interview with the New York Sun and March appearance with political commentator Tucker Carlson, many see Bankman-Fried as angling for a pardon from Trump.
“@realdonaldtrump is right on crypto,” Bankman-Fried said in an X post on Friday, just days after Ellison walked free after serving 440 days in prison for her role in the 2022 collapse of FTX.
Bankman-Fried calls Trump’s arrest of Maduro “smart” and “gutsy”
Bankman-Fried also praised Trump on issues beyond crypto, including the recent arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, calling the move “smart, gutsy, and pro-democracy.”
At the same time, Bankman-Fried took aim at the previous administration, which he once backed with millions in political donations.
“All the world leaders I met were fed up with Biden,” he said, adding that he “bungled crypto.”
Bankman-Fried argued that he “didn’t have to” as there was “plenty in the party had reasonable thoughts.” “But he chose [Gary] Gensler for SEC chair,” Bankman-Fried said.
Gensler adopted a “regulation before enforcement” approach to crypto and stepped down on in January 2025, ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
Prediction platform odds for a Bankman-Fried pardon sit at 17%
Gensler’s successor, Paul Atkins, who was sworn in by Trump in April 2025, is widely viewed in the crypto industry as far more crypto-friendly.
Following the collapse of FTX in November 2022, US authorities extradited Bankman-Fried from the Bahamas to face charges, including money laundering and fraud. A jury convicted the former CEO on seven felony counts in November 2023, and a judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison in March 2024.
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In November 2025, Bankman-Fried appealed his conviction and sentence and is awaiting results in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Traders on crypto predictions platform Polymarket currently assign just a 17% chance that Trump will pardon Bankman-Fried before 2027.
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