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Donald Trump says he will not pardon former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

Danielle du Toit
January 09, 2026

Here's what we've got for you today:

Trump Rules Out Pardon for Sam Bankman-Fried
Google Passes Apple in Market Value as AI Trade Accelerates
JUST IN: Morgan Stanley ($1.5T AUM) Plans Tokenized Wallet as Bitcoin Reclaims $90K
Vietnam Targets Mid-January Launch for Pilot Crypto Exchange Licenses

Donald Trump says he will not pardon former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

Donald Trump said in an interview with The New York Times that he does not plan to pardon Sam Bankman-Fried, and grouped him with other people he has no intention of granting clemency to, including Sean Combs and Robert Menendez.
Bankman-Fried has been incarcerated since August 2023 and was sentenced in March 2024 to 25 years in prison after being convicted on seven felony counts related to the collapse of FTX.
Other former FTX executives received reduced sentences after cooperating with prosecutors, including former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, who was sentenced to two years.

Alphabet has surpassed Apple to become the world’s second-most valuable company.

Alphabet Inc. overtook Apple Inc. to become the world’s second-most valuable company by market capitalization, with Alphabet reaching roughly $3.88 trillion compared to Apple’s $3.85 trillion.
The shift could be attributed to strong investor confidence in Google’s artificial intelligence and cloud strategy, driven by momentum around its Gemini AI model and custom Tensor Processing Units.
While Nvidia is still the world’s most valuable company, Alphabet’s rise sheds some light on its growth across search, advertising, AI, and autonomous driving through Waymo.

Morgan Stanley is getting ready to launch a digital wallet for tokenized financial assets.

Morgan Stanley is preparing to launch a digital wallet for tokenized assets later this year, focused on blockchain-based representations of traditional financial instruments rather than retail cryptocurrency storage.
The wallet is designed for institutional and high-net-worth clients and is expected to support tokenized funds and other tokenized financial products tied to capital markets, private assets, and structured products.
Morgan Stanley also plans to introduce crypto trading access on its E*Trade platform in the first half of 2026 via third-party infrastructure.

Vietnam is launching a tightly controlled pilot for domestic crypto exchanges to bring trading onshore.

Vietnam is moving forward with a pilot program for domestic crypto exchanges following a Jan. 6, 2026 national finance-sector conference, where officials identified controlled crypto trading as a priority to study market behavior, strengthen oversight, and prepare for future regulation.
The goal of the pilot is to bring crypto trading onshore in one of Southeast Asia’s most active adoption markets, reducing reliance on offshore platforms.
Entry requirements are strict, with only five firms expected to qualify initially. Applicants must hold at least VND10 trillion in charter capital and meet ownership rules requiring 65% institutional control, including qualified banks, securities firms, insurers, fund managers, or technology companies with proven profitability and clean audits.

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