SBF Mulls New Token in Prison as Pardon Controversy Mounts

FTX collapsed in November 2022 after revelations that customer assets had been diverted to affiliated trading firm Alameda Research, triggering one of the crypto industry’s largest fraud cases. A federal jury convicted founder Sam Bankman-Fried, known as SBF, on seven criminal counts in November 2023, a verdict that intensified scrutiny of digital-asset governance, custody practices and regulation.

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York rejected Bankman-Fried’s appeal, leaving intact the 25-year prison term and $11 billion forfeiture order imposed on March 28, 2024. The court said transferring customer money to Alameda without authorization was itself fraudulent, dismissing his contention that the funds were only borrowed temporarily and that he intended to repay them.

FTX, once one of the world's three largest cryptocurrency exchanges, collapsed into bankruptcy in November 2022, leaving customers with losses of more than $8 billion. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced by a U.S. court in March 2024 to 25 years in prison for multiple counts of financial fraud. One of the largest financial fraud cases in U.S. history, it has become a major turning point for global digital-asset regulation and investor protection.

The U.S. Senate unanimously adopted Resolution 772, or S.Res.772, on July 15, 2026, strongly opposing any presidential pardon or sentence commutation for Bankman-Fried. The resolution's passage without objection reflects the seriousness with which lawmakers from both parties view the case. He is currently not due for release before 2044, and former President Donald Trump has publicly said he has no intention of granting clemency.

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX collapsed in November 2022, and founder Sam Bankman-Fried, known as SBF, was accused of misappropriating about $8 billion in customer funds. A federal jury in New York convicted him in November 2023, and a court sentenced him to 25 years in prison on March 28, 2024. The prosecution became a landmark case in the U.S. crackdown on major financial fraud.

Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren are preparing a nonbinding joint resolution calling on the president not to pardon Bankman-Fried or commute his sentence. They warned that granting executive clemency to the former FTX chief, who misappropriated billions of dollars in customer assets, would undermine judicial accountability and the deterrence of financial crime.