Donald Trump has pardoned three co-founders of BitMEX, including Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed. Prosecutors had originally charged the founders with willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act between 2015 and 2020 for failing to adopt anti-money laundering procedures and know-your-customer (KYC) business practices.
In 2022, Samuel Reed pleaded guilty and paid $10 million, while Bitmex, in 2025, pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and agreed to pay $100 million in fines. Hayes and Delo also faced charges for their oversight of the exchange, failing to stop the transfer of illicit transactions.
“This full and unconditional pardon”, wrote Delo, “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. As the most successful crypto exchange of its kind, we were wrongfully made to serve as an example, sacrificed for political reason,s and used to send inconsistent regulatory signals”.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought charges against the founders of Bitmex, with prosecutors alleging that the lack of know-your-customer (KYC) procedures resulted in anonymous transactions occurring on a regular basis, involving illicit transactions as well. All of the founders pleaded guilty, and additionally, the Bitmex exchange pleaded guilty to the charges.
The Bitmex founders all received a $10 million penalty and were prohibited from making any further violations against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). All three founders received sentences, with Hayes getting 2 years, Delo getting 30 months, and Reed getting 18 months. Vivien Khoo stepped in as CEO because the founders had too many legal issues to contend with.
Prosecutors allege that from 2015 through to 2020, when the legal case started, the Bitmex exchange allowed for anonymous trades, thereby acting as a money laundering platform. The platform served thousands of American clients without any need for them to identify where they came from.
Trevor Milton, former CEO of Nikola Motors, convicted of fraud in 2022, was also pardoned by President Trump. In January, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, creator of the Silk Road, who had spent 11 years in prison and was serving a life sentence with 40 additional years, and with no chance of parole. Sam Bankman-Fried, former FTX CEO, convicted fraudster, agreed to an interview with Tucker Carlson, but ended up in solitary confinement because the jail had not authorized the interview.
The SEC, under Paul Atkins, is a much kinder department towards Bitmex, unlike the one under Gary Gensler, which ruled with an iron fist. Atkins, during his Senate confirmation, promised to bring order to the SEC with a structured approach to governance. Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, do thrive under despotic rulers; after all, that is what Bitcoin was designed for. But, continued legal attacks by the SEC only waste time when Bitmex should be focusing on real-world partnerships.
