🟪 Sam Bankman-...free?

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I don’t think it’s crypto pardon season quite yet.

Bloomberg scooped this week that the parents of Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former CEO of failed crypto exchange FTX, are exploring ways to possibly secure a pardon for their son.

It’s interesting timing, given that Trump just pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in jail for the creation and operation of Silk Road, the now-defunct dark market. Ulbricht’s freedom was a cause célèbre among the bitcoin faithful, and in return for political support, Trump delivered in his first week in office.

I don’t see this playing out in Bankman-Fried’s favor. Ulbricht’s trial took place over a decade ago, during crypto’s infancy, and Silk Road’s role in creating tangible economic use for bitcoin is pretty undeniable. Most people probably don’t remember the ins and outs of Ulbricht’s trial or the controversial aftermath.

Bankman-Fried, by contrast, was tried and found guilty relatively recently. He became the poster child for a particular — and rather negative — kind of crypto culture, and one that is unlikely to inspire the kind of grassroots advocacy that led to Ulbricht’s pardon. Simply put, there are unlikely to be many champions for Bankman-Fried’s freedom.

Then there’s the cruder, political side of things: Bankman-Fried’s parents’ reported connections to Democratic politics. Bankman-Fried himself donated primarily to Democrats, though there were some Republicans in the mix, too. 

All of this is to say that I’d be pretty surprised if Bankman-Fried scores a pardon. Then again, some might have said the same thing about Ulbricht, so who can say for sure in the era of Trump. 

And now, on to the round-up:

— Michael McSweeney

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