SBF Polymarket Odds Shot Up After Trump Pardoned CZ – But Will The Momentum Last?

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) odds of being pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump rose amongst Polymarket bettors on Thursday following news that he had granted clemency to Binance founder Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, a poll on the decentralized prediction market shows.

SBF Sees Pardon Odds Leap on Polymarket

According to the poll labeled “Who will Trump pardon in 2025,” Bankman-Fried’s odds of being pardoned rose by more than 6% within a 24-hour span.

On Thursday morning, Bankman-Fried’s odds of being pardoned held steady at 6%. However, they rose to 12.5% by Thursday night.

By Friday afternoon, Bankman-Fried’s odds of being pardoned hovered around 9.7%.

FTX Founder Takes to Social Media Amid Appeal

News of the poll comes nearly two years after the former FTX CEO was found guilty on criminal charges tied to his time at the doomed crypto exchange.

The former “king of crypto” was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for orchestrating the massive digital asset scheme that saw FTX investors drained of $8 billion.

Several former associates of Bankman-Fried also testified against him, including FTX chief technical officer, Gary Wang, the crypto platform’s former head of engineering, Nishad Singh, and one-time Alameda Research CEO, Caroline Ellison.

Earlier this month, the disgraced FTX founder took to social media to allege that “Biden’s anti-crypto SEC/DOJ went after me” and had arrested him in 2022 as a means of preventing his testimony on Capitol Hill the next day.

gm @GETTRofficial https://t.co/GsY3bFkgKM

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) October 15, 2025

“They had me arrested weeks before the crypto bill I was working on was set for a vote—and the night before I was set to testify before Congress,” a post on Bankman-Fried’s official Gettr account says.

Bankman-Fried is currently appealing his November 2023 conviction and is expected back in court on November 3 in New York City.