President Donald Trump has reportedly granted pardons to co-founders of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX — Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed — according to CNBC.
HDR Global Trading Limited, the entity behind BitMEX, and executive Gregory Dwyer were also granted pardons.
The three pled guilty to a series of federal charges, including violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, for failing to implement proper anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) protocols.
Trump issued the pardons on Thursday, according to CNBC.
Prosecutors had accused the men of operating BitMEX as a “money laundering platform,” claiming that its public withdrawal from the U.S. market was “a sham.”
Reed entered a guilty plea in 2022 and paid a $10 million fine. All three executives were accused of knowingly allowing U.S. customers to use the platform without sufficient AML controls — in some cases requiring no more than an email address to trade.
In 2025, BitMEX itself pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and was fined $100 million.