Investing.com - Sam Bankman-Fried's parents are looking into ways to secure a potential pardon for the FTX co-founder from U.S. President Donald Trump, Bloomberg News has reported, citing a person familiar with the situation.

Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried held meetings with lawyers and people considered to be close to Trump's orbit about the president granting clemency for their son, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud, the report said. It was not clear if the White House had been contacted about the matter, it added.

Bankman-Fried was found guilty in 2023 of several charges tied to the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and the disappearance of approximately $10 billion in customer deposits. Along with his prison sentence, he was also fined $11 billion.

Trump, once a skeptic of cryptocurrencies, has since adopted a more favorable stance to the industry. Amid a groundswell of support from crypto enthusiasts, he recently exercised his power to issue presidential pardons to free Silk Road founder Ross Ulbritcht, who was serving a life sentence in relation to money laundering and drug trafficking done on the site.

However, Bankman-Fried has yet to have the same level of backing, even as he has argued that his sentence was too harsh because FTX customers have mostly recouped their losses, Bloomberg reported.

LayerZero Labs announced the resolution of its protracted legal dispute with the FTX bankruptcy estate. The settlement, confirmed by LayerZero's co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino, puts an end to a contentious two-year battle stemming from transactions made with Alameda Research just before FTX declared bankruptcy.

The controversy centered on a deal where Alameda Research, led by CEO Caroline Ellison, agreed to sell a 5% equity stake in LayerZero back to the company. This stake was valued at $150 million at the time of the lawsuit. In return, LayerZero would forgive a $45 million loan it had extended to Alameda. The FTX estate's lawsuit claimed that these transactions were fraudulent, as they were made when Alameda was insolvent.

Another point of contention was an agreement for Alameda to sell 100 million Stargate (STG) tokens back to LayerZero at a significantly reduced price compared to the original purchase, although this transaction was never finalized.

Pellegrino had previously dismissed the lawsuit as baseless, stating that LayerZero had made efforts to resolve the share issue but was met with no response.

With the latest development, Pellegrino expressed relief at the conclusion of the legal proceedings, noting that the original repurchase had been returned to the FTX estate. He emphasized the company's eagerness to move forward, focusing on building without the distraction of ongoing litigation.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

On the day of the announcement, VIRTUAL, the native token of the Virtuals Protocol, an AI agent generator platform, experienced a significant price increase during European trading hours. The surge, amounting to a 28% rise to $2.61, approached the downtrend line that has defined the sell-off since the token's record high of about $5.25 on January 2, according to data from TradingView and CoinDesk.

The price jump was a direct consequence of Upbit, South Korea's leading cryptocurrency exchange, deciding to list VIRTUAL in three different markets: VIRTUAL/KRW, VIRTUAL/USDT, and VIRTUAL/BTC. This move opens the token to a broader market of altcoin traders in Korea, known for their enthusiasm in the cryptocurrency space.

Earlier in the month, Virtuals Protocol had revealed a new initiative aimed at reducing the number of ecosystem agent tokens in circulation. The protocol indicated that it would use nearly 13 million VIRTUAL tokens, which had been accumulated as income from post-bonding trading, to buy back and destroy these tokens.

Additionally, Virtuals Protocol has been making strategic expansions. It recently extended its reach to the Solana blockchain through LayerZero, introducing a Meteora pool to boost trading activity and engagement within its ecosystem.

Furthermore, the protocol announced the establishment of a SOL reserve, which will be funded by converting 1% of trading fees into SOL, the native cryptocurrency of the Solana network.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.