"SBF files for presidential pardon" Jun 09, 2026

Sam Bankman-Fried, 34, has officially filed for a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, requesting clemency following his 2023 conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges tied to stealing billions in customer funds from FTX. He is currently serving a 25-year sentence at a low-security federal prison in Santa Barbara, California. Trump stated in January that he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried, and a White House spokesperson responded to the new filing by pointing back to those earlier comments. Despite this, Bankman-Fried spent the past year publicly courting Trump on X, including praising some of his pardons, and is simultaneously pursuing a separate appeal of his conviction.

SBI Shinsei Bank is reportedly planning to launch a crypto rewards program for deposit customers this fall, offering vouchers worth 20 percent of their deposit interest payments redeemable for Bitcoin, Ether, or XRP through SBI VC Trade. A three-month pilot is set to begin June 10th, covering ordinary savings accounts and time deposits ranging from three months to five years. The program represents a notable move by a traditional Japanese bank to integrate crypto incentives directly into conventional deposit products.

On-chain analyst Specter reported that approximately 17 wallets linked to Humanity Protocol were drained for more than 32 million dollars. Terrence Quock attributed the breach to a compromised private key belonging to a Humanity Foundation member. However, on-chain investigator Zach XBT suggested the incident may have been a staged market maker exit rather than a straightforward theft, introducing meaningful uncertainty about the true nature of the event. Specter noted the attacker minted 100 million H tokens and was actively dumping them for BNB, and the H token collapsed 89 percent within 24 hours of the incident.

Morpho raised 175 million dollars in a token purchase round that values the on-chain lending protocol at up to 2 billion dollars, making it one of the largest funding rounds in DeFi history. The protocol plans to deploy the capital toward deeper technical and commercial integrations and continued expansion into institutional on-chain lending. The size of the round reflects sustained institutional appetite for DeFi infrastructure even as broader market conditions remain uneven.

One organizer of a 2024 Bitcoin-linked kidnapping and carjacking plot pleaded guilty in federal court in Hartford to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and faces up to 20 years in prison. The group targeted the parents of a crypto thief who had allegedly stolen approximately 4,100 Bitcoins through a social engineering scam. The case underscores the growing physical security risks faced by individuals connected to large crypto holdings, whether directly or through family ties.