Bankman-Fried Backs Trump After Ellison’s Prison Release

His comments followed recent media appearances and an X post backing Trump’s crypto stance, and came just days after former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison was released from prison. Bankman-Fried also praised Trump’s foreign policy actions while blaming Biden for mishandling crypto regulation, particularly over the appointment of former SEC chair Gary Gensler. Despite the overt political pivot, market expectations for clemency remain low. Bankman-Fried Courts Trump Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried intensified his public praise of US President Donald Trump while sharply criticizing former President Joe Biden. This especially attracted attention just days after Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, was released from federal custody. Ellison served 440 days in prison for her role in the 2022 collapse of FTX, which became one of the most consequential fraud prosecutions in crypto history. Bankman-Fried’s recent comments follow a February 2025 interview with the New York Sun and a March appearance alongside political commentator Tucker Carlson, which many people interpreted as part of an effort to reposition himself politically. In an X post on Friday, Bankman-Fried wrote that Trump is “right on crypto,” and fueled speculation that the former exchange executive may be angling for a presidential pardon as he serves a 25-year sentence for fraud and related crimes. Beyond digital assets, Bankman-Fried also voiced support for Trump’s actions on foreign policy, and praised the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as “smart, gutsy, and pro-democracy.” At the same time, he took aim at the Biden administration, despite having previously donated millions to Democratic causes. Bankman-Fried claimed that global leaders he met were frustrated with Biden’s leadership and accused the former president of mishandling crypto policy. Central to that criticism was Biden’s appointment of Gary Gensler as chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Bankman-Fried argued that while there were reasonable voices in the Democratic Party on crypto, Biden ultimately “chose Gensler,” whose tenure was marked by an aggressive regulatory stance toward the industry. Gensler stepped down in January of 2025, ahead of Trump’s inauguration, and was succeeded by Paul Atkins, who is widely viewed within the crypto sector as far more industry-friendly. Despite Bankman-Fried’s much more favorable rhetoric toward Trump, market expectations for a pardon are still low. Traders on crypto prediction platform Polymarket currently assign just a 21% chance that Trump will pardon Bankman-Fried before 2027. Polymarket contract about who Trump could pardon next Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried is still pursuing an appeal of his conviction and sentence, which he filed in November 2025.