The Senate SBF clemency resolution cleared the chamber by unanimous consent on 15 July 2026, placing every senator on record against any pardon, commutation, or other executive relief for the imprisoned FTX founder. No senator objected when S.Res.772 was brought before the chamber, according to the U.S. Senate Daily Press.
The resolution’s text, drawn from the Senate Daily Press entry, states that Samuel Bankman-Fried should ‘under no circumstances’ receive clemency. It also frames denial of clemency as a matter of upholding the rule of law and the integrity of the U.S. financial system.
The measure is nonbinding. It does not curtail the president’s constitutional pardon authority, but it creates a formal legislative record that any future clemency grant would have to run against.
What the Senate SBF Clemency Resolution Actually Says
Senators Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, and Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, introduced the resolution on 17 June. Both serve on the Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets subcommittee. When introducing the measure, Lummis said Bankman-Fried ‘had his day in court,’ while Gallego called for him to remain imprisoned.
Bankman-Fried was convicted by a federal jury in November 2023 on seven fraud and conspiracy charges connected to the collapse of FTX. Prosecutors argued he moved billions of dollars in customer funds to Alameda Research, deploying the money on investments, political donations, and personal spending. A judge sentenced him to 25 years in March 2024. Federal prison records cited in recent reporting put his projected release date in 2044.
He was 34 years old when he filed the formal pardon application in 2026, according to Forbes. The CNBC report on the application notes it is categorised by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney as a ‘pardon after completion of sentence,’ with status listed as ‘pending.’ The New York Times separately confirmed the pending listing, with no further details publicly available beyond that status.
His legal options have narrowed in parallel. An appeals court upheld his conviction after a three-judge panel rejected arguments that the trial court had wrongly restricted evidence he wanted to present in his defence. The conviction and sentence remain in place, though avenues for further review are not exhausted.
Trump’s Crypto Pardon Record Sets the Context
The Senate SBF clemency resolution arrives against a backdrop of Trump granting clemency to other crypto-linked figures. Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht in January 2025 and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in October 2025. In March 2025, Trump also pardoned the three BitMEX founders, Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, who had pleaded guilty to violating federal anti-money-laundering rules, according to Forbes.
Bankman-Fried has not received comparable treatment. Trump said in January that he did not plan to pardon the FTX founder, and a White House spokesperson later directed reporters back to those remarks after the formal application was filed.
The bipartisan composition of the resolution, a Republican and a Democrat from the Senate Banking Committee’s crypto subcommittee sponsoring it, reflects the degree to which the FTX collapse cut across party lines in Washington. Whether that consensus translates into any practical restraint on executive action is a different question: the pardon power sits squarely with the president, and the Senate’s unanimous voice is advisory only.
Bankman-Fried’s application remains pending. The next meaningful development is most likely to come from either the White House or the appellate courts, not the Senate floor.
