★ Government Action
Trump pardons BitMEX co-founders for Bank Secrecy Act violations
Crypto DeregulationTrump Pardons
Filed March 2025
★ The Brief
What happened
Trump issued full pardons on March 27, 2025 to BitMEX's three founders, Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, and a former executive, clearing their guilty pleas for failing to run anti-money-laundering controls at the crypto exchange.
Who enabled it
Deal or steal?
The pardons fit a wave of crypto-world clemency in Trump's first months back: he cleared Silk Road's Ross Ulbricht on his first day and later pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, convicted under the same anti-money-laundering law.
President Trump issued full pardons on March 27, 2025 to Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed — the three co-founders of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange — and to former business development chief Gregory Dwyer. All four had previously pled guilty to one count each of violating the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to maintain anti-money laundering and know-your-customer programs. The founders had been sentenced to varying terms of probation and ordered collectively to pay $30 million in civil fines related to a CFTC lawsuit. Dwyer had been sentenced to 12 months of probation and agreed to pay $150,000 in fines. BitMEX itself had been separately fined $100 million in December 2024 for the same Bank Secrecy Act violations. Prosecutors had accused the executives of operating BitMEX as a 'money laundering platform' and characterized its purported withdrawal from the U.S. market as 'a sham.'
Actors
Who pushed it · 1Who initiated, paid, or pushed the action.
Donald TrumpIssued full and unconditional pardons to all four BitMEX defendants, exercising sole executive clemency authority.
Beneficiaries
Who gained · 4Who stood to gain.
- Arthur Hayes
Received a presidential pardon clearing his guilty plea conviction; had been sentenced to six months of home confinement followed by two years of probation.
Benjamin DeloReceived a presidential pardon clearing his guilty plea conviction; had been sentenced to 30 months of probation.
- Gregory Dwyer
Received a presidential pardon clearing his guilty plea conviction; had been sentenced to 12 months of probation and agreed to pay $150,000 in fines.
- Samuel Reed
Received a presidential pardon clearing his guilty plea conviction; had been sentenced to 18 months of probation.
Further reading
- ★ Government ActionOctober 2025Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao after BSA conviction
- ★ Government ActionDecember 2025Trump pardons Tina Peters, Colorado clerk in stop-the-steal case
- ★ Private ActionOctober 2025Truth Social launches prediction market with Crypto.com affiliate
- ★ Government ActionMay 2025Trump commutes donor Imaad Zuberi's foreign-lobbying sentence
- ★ Private ActionMay 2025UAE firm uses $2B Trump-Witkoff stablecoin for Binance stake
- ★ Government ActionApril 2025Trump pardons Paul Walczak weeks after mother's $1M Mar-a-Lago dinner