Sam Bankman-Fried files formal pardon request as FTT token jumps 50%.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the convicted FTX co-founder serving 25 years in prison, formally filed a presidential pardon request with the U.S. Department of Justice on June 8, 2026. The pardon would apply after his sentence completion and could restore certain civil rights but would not lead to early release. Despite this, former President Donald Trump has publicly rejected pardoning him twice in 2026, citing the scale of the $11 billion FTX fraud. The filing caused FTT, the legacy FTX token, to jump roughly 50% intraday, introducing new uncertainty to the case's future developments.