Most Influential: Ross Ulbricht

Policy Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Most Influential: Ross Ulbricht Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump — kicking off a wave of pardons among some of the crypto industry’s biggest names. By Nikhilesh De | Edited by Cheyenne Ligon Dec 8, 2025, 3:00 p.m. Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht served 12 years of a double life sentence (plus another 40 years) before U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned him in January, releasing him from prison and kicking off a wave of other pardons that continues through this month. Ulbricht, who was convicted in February 2015 and sentenced in May that year , originally went to prison after being convicted of narcotics trafficking, conspiracy and hacking charges. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the State of Crypto Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . Trump pledged to pardon Ulbricht in May 2024 at the Libertarian National Convention and followed through shortly after retaking office this past January, explicitly tying the pardon to the support he received from the Libertarian Party. “I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross," Trump wrote on a Truth Social post at the time. Trump did not stop there: In March, he pardoned former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes , Hayes’ co-founders Samuel Reed and Benjamin Delo and senior employee Greg Dwyer. In a first for the U.S., he also pardoned HDR Global Trading, the corporate entity that operates the BitMEX platform. All had pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations. Later still, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao , Binance’s founder and former CEO, who also pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act-related charges. These last few pardons open the door for Hayes, Zhao and the others to re-enter the U.S. as company offers, and for BitMEX to easily begin conducting business in the U.S. Trump’s pardons aren’t limited to crypto executives; in recent weeks, he’s pardoned former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández (convicted of conspiring to distribute over 400 tons of narcotics), commuted the sentence of David Gentile (convicted on securities and wire fraud charges tied to a $1.6 billion scheme) and pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar (indicted on bribery charges with a trial set for next year), among others. Trump began the year with a mass-pardon of individuals convicted of charges tied to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol. It remains to be seen if another crypto executive will be pardoned, though one has gone on a recent public relations blitz in an apparent attempt to secure a pardon even as he serves a 25-year prison sentence while awaiting an appeals court’s verdict on his attempt at a new trial : FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Ross Ulbricht Silk Road Libertarian Party Most Influential 2025 More For You Protocol Research: GoPlus Security By CoinDesk Research Nov 14, 2025 Commissioned by GoPlus What to know : As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M. GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month. Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B. View Full Report More For You Most Influential: Donald Trump By Jesse Hamilton , Shaurya Malwa | Edited by Cheyenne Ligon 3 minutes ago Without the turnaround of Donald Trump on crypto, the road toward a U.S. governmental embrace of the new technology would likely have been a steeper climb. Read full story Latest Crypto News Pye Finance Raises $5M Seed Round Led by Variant and Coinbase Ventures 3 minutes ago Most Influential: Donald Trump 3 minutes ago Most Influential: Rep. French Hill 3 minutes ago Most Influential: David Sacks 3 minutes ago Most Influential: Sen. 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