US President Donald Trump has granted presidential pardons to the three co-founders of the BitMEX crypto exchange following a lengthy legal debacle with the US Department of Justice (DOJ). BitMEX and its co-founders were found guilty of violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
The US Government Vs. BitMEX
In 2020, the DOJ accused BitMEX of running a crypto trading platform that failed to implement Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures thereby violating the Bank Secrecy Act. According to the US prosecutors, BitMEX knowingly solicited business from US markets requiring only users to provide an email as opposed to a basic know-your-customer procedure.
In 2022, Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed who had together begun BitMEX in 2014, pled guilty to the charges by the DOJ. All parties including Gregory Dwyer, who had served as Head of Business Development and was facing similar charges were ordered to serve varying lengths of probation and pay a total fine of over $30 million.
Two years later, BitMEX as a corporation pled guilty to the single count of breaching the Bank Secrecy Act and received a sentence of two years probation and a $100 million fine. However, according to local media USA TODAY, President Trump has pardoned all four defendants in this case declaring them free of all convictions and penalties.
In reaction to Trump’s magnanimity, Hayes has taken to social media platform X to post “Thank You”. Meanwhile, Benjamin Delo has reportedly issued a statement claiming BitMEX’s innocence since the case’s onset in 2020.
Delo said:
This full and unconditional pardon by President Trump is a vindication of the position we have always held – that BitMEX, my co-founders, and I should never have been charged with a criminal offense through an obscure, antiquated law.
Trump’s Pro-Crypto Train Moves On
The recent pardon of the BitMEX co-founders adds to the list of crypto-friendly actions by the Trump Administration following the inauguration in January. In addition to Hayes and his colleagues, the US President has also pardoned Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht who has been incarcerated for over 11 years serving a double life sentence plus 40 years without the option of parole.
Under Trump’s pro-crypto policy, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also discontinued enforcement action against crypto companies including Coinbase, Robinhood, Gemini, and Ripple. While these developments indicate a crypto-friendly stance by the new US government, the crypto market continues to suffer from the ripple effects of new international trade policies.
At the time of writing, the crypto market is valued at $2.68 trillion after shrinking by over 4% in the past day following the US decision to impose a 25% tariff on auto imports from Mexico and China.
