Celebrating 250 years of America! Trump plans to pardon 250 people, will the founders of FTX and Tornado be chosen?

U.S. President Trump is reportedly considering a 250-person pardon plan, drawing attention from the crypto community. The market is abuzz about whether developers of privacy-related mixer protocols and SBF—who have been linked to privacy controversies—could be included.

Trump floated a “250-person pardon plan,” and the crypto community is closely watching list updates

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, U.S. President Trump is considering pushing a large-scale pardon plan during the United States’ 250th anniversary of founding, which is expected to pardon around 250 offenders. After the news was revealed, the crypto industry also began to discuss it, including whether crypto industry figures involved in major cases in recent years might have a chance to be included in the pardon list.

At present, the figures drawing the most attention in the market include Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the convicted founder of FTX, as well as Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev—founders of Tornado Cash—and other parties involved in cases related to privacy protocols. Because Trump has continued to send friendly signals toward the crypto industry over the past year, some supporters have started speculating whether the White House might re-examine certain crypto-related cases.

When Trump recently discussed pardon proposals with his staff, he mentioned the hope of using a “250-person pardon” to echo the symbolic significance of the U.S. 250th anniversary, but the White House has not yet announced an official list.

Tornado Cash case continues to unfold, and the crypto community rallies behind developers

Among all the potential candidates being discussed, the Tornado Cash-related case has attracted particular attention from the crypto community. Some crypto supporters believe that the U.S. government’s enforcement actions against Tornado Cash developers in recent years involve a core question: whether “code is protected as free speech.”

Tornado Cash is a privacy-mixing protocol based on Ethereum. The U.S. Department of the Treasury previously accused the North Korean Lazarus Group of using the tool to launder money, and therefore imposed sanctions on the protocol. However, the crypto community and some developers have long criticized the U.S. government for equating open-source code development directly with criminal conduct, which could have a chilling effect on the broader open-source software industry.

At present, Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm is still facing ongoing U.S. judicial proceedings, while a Dutch court has already issued a ruling against another developer, Alexey Pertsev. Many crypto supporters believe that if Trump truly pushes a large-scale pardon, crypto privacy cases could become a symbolic political issue.

• Related news: Tornado Cash sanctions case comes to an end! U.S. Treasury drops its appeal, and TORN jumps more than 5%

Could SBF be pardoned? The market reacts in two very different directions

Compared with the Tornado Cash developers’ case—which involves technical and open-source disputes—FTX founder SBF’s situation is even more sensitive. SBF was previously convicted on multiple counts, including fraud, misappropriation of customer assets, and financial crimes, and is viewed as one of the most representative financial scandals in the crypto industry.

Some market participants believe that SBF’s chances of receiving a pardon are relatively low, mainly because the FTX incident involved a large number of victims and significant political pressure. In particular, SBF’s case dealt a major blow to confidence among U.S. retail users and institutional investors, and also prompted U.S. regulators to accelerate high-pressure enforcement against the crypto industry.

• Related news: With zero leniency toward the FTX scandal, Trump said he would not grant a pardon, and hopes to overturn the SBF case are officially dashed

However, some supporters also believe that in the past, Trump has repeatedly used pardons to convey political symbolism, so whether he will package some crypto cases as examples of “excessive government regulation” remains up for discussion.

Crypto regulation is gradually becoming a key focus of political power struggles in the U.S.

Trump’s stance toward cryptocurrencies has clearly changed over the past year. Besides publicly backing Bitcoin mining and innovation in digital assets, during the campaign he also actively sought funding for and support from the crypto industry. Within the Republican Party, attitudes toward cryptocurrencies are also gradually diverging sharply from those of the Democratic Party.

As the U.S. presidential election draws closer, issues related to the crypto industry are rapidly becoming politicized. Topics such as crypto regulation, privacy tools, and financial freedom are also gradually shifting from technology and finance matters to becoming part of political power struggles in the U.S.