This week, multiple media outlets, citing interviews and reports related to The New York Times, have indicated that U.S. President Donald Trump has once again made it clear that he will not consider exercising presidential pardon powers regarding former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and has no plans to change this stance in the future. This repeated statement across various interviews and channels has further solidified expectations that SBF must continue to serve his sentence under the U.S. judicial system. Despite the political winds in Washington regarding the cryptocurrency industry having swung dramatically in recent years—from fervent support to intense scrutiny and cautious acceptance—Trump's choice to maintain a "zero pardon space" for SBF raises new questions: when a personal legend collapses and the aura of a financial backer completely fades, does it only change one person's fate, or does it signify a repricing of the relationship between the cryptocurrency industry and U.S. politics?

From Benefactor to Prisoner: The Collapse of the SBF Myth and the End of Political Shelter

Before the collapse of FTX, SBF was seen as a "perfect example" in the narrative world—coming from the hedge fund circle, familiar with Wall Street's financial engineering logic, and quickly gaining trust within Silicon Valley's venture capital system. With the previous surge in the cryptocurrency market, he transitioned from a small quantitative trading firm to the helm of a leading global trading platform, packaged as a representative of "effective altruism," frequently appearing in media and political-business settings. From actively participating in congressional hearings to making high-frequency appearances in policy discussions, and making large political donations while providing long-term funding to think tanks and lobbying networks, SBF attempted to position himself as "a bridge between the cryptocurrency industry and Washington," weaving a vast network of influence through money, discourse, and technological narratives. However, the collapse of FTX and his personal sentencing caused this network to fracture in a very short time, and now, under Trump's repeated emphasis on "no pardon," the final piece of political cement has been laid. This not only means that a former benefactor can no longer obtain any form of political shelter but also symbolizes that in the cryptocurrency field, the old model of an individual shaping a political umbrella through money and discourse is failing.

Repeatedly Declaring No Pardon: Amplifying Signals from Interviews to Reports

According to interview content cited by multiple media outlets and reports from The New York Times, Trump did not provide a one-time negative answer regarding whether he would exercise presidential pardon powers for SBF; instead, he reiterated similar statements in multiple interview scenarios, amplified by different channels. This repetition is not merely a casual mention of attitude but rather seems to be a deliberate release of a clear signal to multiple audiences: for most ordinary American voters, the FTX collapse is seen as yet another financial scandal of "elite games gone awry," and excluding SBF from the pardon list helps to respond to anti-elite and anti-establishment sentiments; for traditional finance and regulatory bodies, maintaining a tough judicial stance against SBF means not easily weakening the punitive measures against major cases in the cryptocurrency field; and within the cryptocurrency community, this repeated emphasis is interpreted as "case segmentation," allowing the development and compliance of cryptocurrency technology and markets while fixing SBF's fate as an irredeemable negative example. The repeated declaration of no pardon not only locks in expectations at the discourse level but also ensures that this stance is fully heard by all parties across different information loops.

Changing Political Stakes: From Chips to Negative Assets

In the tradition of U.S. politics, presidential pardon powers are often viewed as a form of "high-stakes chip," which can be used to rectify historical injustices or to release symbolic goodwill in political transactions. Many times, this power is used as a "political legacy project" before leaving office or as a subtle tool for factional balance. However, in the current context of public opinion and voter sentiment, endorsing a former billionaire who fell due to a major cryptocurrency scandal carries a political cost far greater than the potential benefits. Anti-elite and anti-Wall Street sentiments continue to ferment globally, and public dissatisfaction with the notion that "money can buy everything" is being amplified. In this context, SBF is no longer a representative of the new economy that can be packaged as an "innovative sacrifice," but rather closer to a symbol of "greed and loss of control" locked in by mainstream narratives. Trump's declaration of "no plans to change his stance" effectively announces that SBF has transitioned from a potential political chip to a "negative asset" that any politician would find difficult to touch. This shift also means that in future political transactions surrounding cryptocurrency regulation and legitimacy, the space for individual "redemption exchanges" is greatly compressed, and institutional issues will be more operational and secure than individual cases.

FTX Creditors and the Cryptocurrency Industry: Discrepancies in Emotion and Pricing

In the public discourse, whether SBF might be pardoned will repeatedly be treated as a highly dramatic public topic; however, for FTX creditors and the broader cryptocurrency market, the relationship between individual sentencing, bankruptcy liquidation, and asset recovery is already highly misaligned. What creditors truly care about are specific indicators such as liquidation progress, asset recovery, and recovery rates, rather than when and how SBF leaves prison. The judicial system's penalties against individuals do not directly alter the path of asset distribution in bankruptcy proceedings; they only provide a psychological compensation at the level of public opinion and "sense of justice." Market pricing has long internalized the baseline assumption of SBF's "long-term imprisonment" as background noise, and whether or not he is pardoned has not produced observable immediate impacts on-chain or in market conditions. Traders' focus on FTX-related assets and secondary market sentiment is more concentrated on asset recovery progress, potential selling pressure rhythms, and whether subsequent regulatory frameworks can provide certainty for a new round of institutional entry. Thus, SBF's fate has become more of an emotional and narrative symbol, repeatedly referenced, remembered, and warned against, but compared to the medium- to long-term performance of mainstream cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, its impact is rapidly marginalizing, leaving the market with a risk memory that has already been "fully digested."

Regulatory Memories Persist: From Negative Examples to Institutional Templates

Regardless of how power changes hands, SBF and the FTX case have already been viewed as "textbook-level" negative examples within the U.S. judicial and regulatory systems. From investigations to prosecutions, and from judgments to cross-border asset recovery cooperation involving the SEC, CFTC, and multiple national regulatory bodies, the experiences are being summarized internally and transformed into institutional requirements for large cryptocurrency platforms. For exchanges, the most significant change is that the entire logic surrounding customer asset management is being rewritten: custody transparency, on-chain and off-chain asset proof, and strict account segregation mechanisms are evolving from "voluntary disclosure" into hard constraints from the market and regulators; the boundaries of risk control, related party transactions, and proprietary trading are also being forced to be redrawn under higher standards. SBF is continuously referenced as a counterexample, leading regulators to adopt a "systemic risk" perspective when dealing with any sizable cryptocurrency platform, no longer easily accepting justifications about "innovative trial and error." Even if the White House changes hands or the power structure in Congress experiences fluctuations, this collective memory formed at the frontline of regulatory and judicial operations is unlikely to see fundamental retraction, and is more likely to be solidified into a long-term compliance foundation for the industry through new legislation, guidance, and cross-border cooperation agreements.

The Judgment Dust Has Not Settled: From Personal Downfall to Institutional Game

Overall, Trump's repeated refusal to pardon SBF has only further solidified external consensus on his long-term imprisonment in the U.S., but it has not rewritten the macro direction of the cryptocurrency industry. The aftershocks of the major case continue, but the market has already repriced the relationship between cryptocurrency assets and Washington on a higher dimension: shifting from early reliance on individual benefactors and lobbying networks in "shadow negotiations" to institutional games surrounding licenses, custody, market infrastructure, and tax rules. In the future, the entanglement between the cryptocurrency industry and U.S. politics will revolve less around the dramatic rises and falls of a particular founder or platform, and more around whether compliance frameworks are clear, whether regulatory boundaries are predictable, and the depth of participation from traditional institutions such as banks, asset management companies, and brokerages. For industry participants, maintaining focus on individual rises and falls and the story of "will he be pardoned" will only cause them to miss the variables that truly determine capital flows and valuation centers. What deserves close attention will be the pace of advancing licensing systems, the degree of improvement in cross-border compliance infrastructure, and the allocation ratios of institutional funds in spot and derivatives markets, as these are the key factors determining the height and breadth of the next cycle.

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