President Trump Grants Pardons to Arthur Hayes, BitMEX Co-Founders, and One Employee

Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX, admitted guilt to a single charge of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and received a sentence of two years probation.

Arthur Hayes, former CEO of the crypto exchange BitMEX, has received a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump, a White House official confirmed on Friday.

U.S. President Donald Trump granted pardons to BitMEX co-founders Samuel Reed and Benjamin Delo, as well as senior employee Greg Dwyer and the exchange’s parent company, HDR Global Trading, according to a BitMEX spokesperson. CNBC first reported the pardons, which the White House confirmed were signed on Thursday.  

In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) accused BitMEX, its three co-founders, and its first employee, Dwyer, of breaching the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Prosecutors alleged that the platform allowed users to trade with minimal oversight, avoiding standard know-your-customer (KYC) protocols. All four individuals later admitted guilt, resulting in fines and probationary sentences. The exchange itself also pleaded guilty to BSA violations last year.

Hayes was sentenced to two years of probation, while Delo served 30 months, Reed 18 months, and Dwyer 12 months.  

In a statement, Delo claimed that he and his colleagues were "wrongfully targeted."  

"This full and unconditional pardon by President Trump affirms what we have always believed—that BitMEX, my co-founders, and I should never have faced criminal charges under an outdated and obscure law," he said. "As the leading crypto exchange of its kind, we were unfairly singled out, used as a political example, and subjected to inconsistent regulatory enforcement. I am deeply grateful to the President for granting this pardon to me and my co-founders."  

Hayes simply posted "thank you" on X (formerly Twitter).

In 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ordered BitMEX to pay a $100 million penalty for violating the Commodity Exchange Act and other CFTC regulations, separate from its settlement with the Department of Justice.  

Attorneys representing Hayes, Delo, and Reed have not yet responded to requests for comment.  

The reported pardons follow Trump’s decision just a day earlier to pardon Trevor Milton, the former Nikola Motors CEO who was convicted of fraud in 2022. In January, Trump fulfilled a long-standing promise by pardoning Ross Ulbricht, the creator of Silk Road, who had served 11 years of a severe sentence—two life terms plus 40 years, without parole. Since Ulbricht’s release, former FTX CEO and convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried has been seeking his own pardon, attempting to gain favor with the Trump administration and appearing on Tucker Carlson in an unauthorized jailhouse interview that resulted in him being placed in solitary confinement.

Former Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, who pleaded guilty to the same charge as Hayes and spent four months in prison last year—becoming both the richest person ever jailed in the U.S. and the only individual to serve time for a sole BSA violation—has dismissed reports that he is seeking a pardon from President Trump.  

Still, in a recent post on X, Zhao admitted, “No felon would refuse a pardon, especially as the only person in U.S. history to be imprisoned for a single BSA charge.”