PANews reported on February 18 that according to Cointelegraph, with the coming to power of US President Donald Trump, more and more white-collar criminals, including former FTX CEO SBF, are exploring ways to obtain clemency. However, according to William Livolsi, executive director of the White Collar Support Group, a national support organization that advocates for fairer post-sentence policies, the chances of obtaining a conviction pardon remain slim as the backlog of pardon applications continues to increase.

Compared to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the dark web Silk Road who has been released, Livolsi said: "The comparison between Ulbricht and SBF is not entirely direct. Of course, both are well-known figures in the crypto space, but their individual cases and the sentences they received are very different. In addition, Ulbricht's pardon is openly linked to the campaign promises made by President Trump to his political supporters."

The Office of the Pardon Attorney has established a formal application process for clemency requests, which begins with a clemency application and ends with a formal recommendation from the Pardon Attorney. The president then makes a decision on each case. However, after the application is submitted, the seemingly simple process becomes extremely opaque. According to Livolsi, the Office of the Pardon Attorney has a backlog of about 10,000 applications; for a long time, the role of the Office of the Pardon Attorney "has been seriously neglected", and instead, presidents have granted pardons based on political connections, media pressure or personal interests.