Trump Pardons BitMEX Founders and Parent Company Over Money-Laundering Violations

On March 27-28, 2025, President Trump pardoned BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, former business-development chief Gregory Dwyer, and the exchange's parent company, HDR Global Trading, days after the company had been ordered to pay a $100 million fine for violating the Bank Secrecy Act. Prosecutors had said BitMEX operated for years as a de facto money-laundering platform, requiring only an email address to trade and treating its supposed 2020 U.S. withdrawal as “a sham.” The pardon of a corporation, rather than only individuals, was described by a former U.S. pardon attorney as unprecedented, and the timing meant the company avoided the fine's payment deadline by hours. The action fit into a broader run of crypto-industry pardons and clemency grants as the administration rolled back enforcement in the sector. Supporters framed the case as regulatory overreach against innovators; critics said it erased one of the few major anti-money-laundering enforcement wins against a crypto platform and signaled that financial-crime fines could be negotiated away through political access. Arthur Hayes and other beneficiaries had been prominent donors and supporters of pro-crypto political causes.