Most Influential: Ross Ulbricht

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht served 12 years of a double life sentence (plus another 40 years) before U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned him in January, releasing him from prison and kicking off a wave of other pardons that continues through this month.

This feature is a part of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2025 list.

Ulbricht, who was convicted in February 2015 and sentenced in May that year, originally went to prison after being convicted of narcotics trafficking, conspiracy and hacking charges.

Trump pledged to pardon Ulbricht in May 2024 at the Libertarian National Convention and followed through shortly after retaking office this past January, explicitly tying the pardon to the support he received from the Libertarian Party.

“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross," Trump wrote on a Truth Social post at the time.

Trump did not stop there: In March, he pardoned former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, Hayes’ co-founders Samuel Reed and Benjamin Delo and senior employee Greg Dwyer. In a first for the U.S., he also pardoned HDR Global Trading, the corporate entity that operates the BitMEX platform. All had pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations.

Later still, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder and former CEO, who also pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act-related charges.

These last few pardons open the door for Hayes, Zhao and the others to re-enter the U.S. as company offers, and for BitMEX to easily begin conducting business in the U.S.

Trump’s pardons aren’t limited to crypto executives; in recent weeks, he’s pardoned former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández (convicted of conspiring to distribute over 400 tons of narcotics), commuted the sentence of David Gentile (convicted on securities and wire fraud charges tied to a $1.6 billion scheme) and pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar (indicted on bribery charges with a trial set for next year), among others. Trump began the year with a mass-pardon of individuals convicted of charges tied to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.

It remains to be seen if another crypto executive will be pardoned, though one has gone on a recent public relations blitz in an apparent attempt to secure a pardon even as he serves a 25-year prison sentence while awaiting an appeals court’s verdict on his attempt at a new trial: FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.