Key Takeaways
- FTT soared 43% due to a false report that Sam Bankman-Fried received a Trump pardon.
- Experts consider Bankman-Fried’s odds of a presidential pardon to be low despite ongoing lobbying.
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FTX’s native token, FTT, surged around 43% to $1.3 on Saturday following false reports that Sam Bankman-Fried received a pardon from President Donald Trump.
No evidence of a pardon for Bankman-Fried appears on the Justice Department’s website of clemency grants from President Trump.
Several crypto industry figures have previously received presidential pardons, including BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, as well as Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht.
Bankman-Fried is actively pursuing a presidential pardon from Trump, with support from his parents Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried and other allies, as he faces a 25-year prison sentence following his fraud conviction related to FTX’s collapse.
Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said in a recent interview that his team had applied for a pardon from President Trump.
Experts view Bankman-Fried’s chances of receiving a pardon as low, citing Trump’s transactional approach to clemency and Bankman-Fried’s previous Democratic affiliations as potential obstacles.
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