U.S. President Donald Trump has pardoned three co-founders of the BitMEX exchange, CNBC reports.

The pardon applies to company co-founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, who were accused of violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act’s KYC and AML requirements. Greg Dwyer, BitMEX’s former head of business development and a co-defendant in the case, was also pardoned.

Hayes expressed his gratitude to Trump on X.

Thank you @POTUS
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) March 28, 2025

Delo also thanked the president for the “full and unconditional pardon,” stating that the Justice Department’s actions against BitMEX and its executives were “unjustified from the start.”

“I and my fellow co-founders should never have been criminally charged under an unclear, outdated law. […] We were wrongfully used as an example, sacrificed for political reasons, and subjected to inconsistent regulatory enforcement,” he stated.

Hayes, Delo, and Reed founded BitMEX around 2014, with Gregory Dwyer joining as head of business development a year later.

For years, the exchange served U.S. customers and operated offices in the country without CFTC registration or implementing AML programs.

Authorities alleged that the platform’s executives were aware of these violations and took steps to conceal the true nature of their activities from U.S. banking institutions.

Hayes and Delo pleaded guilty in February 2022, Reed reached a plea deal in March, and Dwyer followed in August.

The co-founders were each fined $10 million. Additionally, Hayes received six months of home detention and two years of probation, while Delo was sentenced to 30 months of probation and Reed to 18 months.

In January 2025, BitMEX operator HDR Global Trading Limited was fined $100 million.