Before the downfall of Ross Ulbricht due to charges associated with his operation of the infamous Silk Road darknet market, he was in possession of 144,000 bitcoins, which at that time were worth $28.5 million. Today, the value of that cache would be over $10 billion, a staggering amount.
Ulbricht accumulated these bitcoins by charging a 10% fee for transactions on Silk Road. However, after the FBI shut down the operation for its illegal activities, federal agents seized and, in some cases, stole the bitcoin they found. In an unexpected twist, a hacker managed to swipe some of the bitcoin before it could be seized, and North Korean hackers also claimed a portion.
The messy aftermath led the federal government to strike a deal that some of the misappropriated bitcoin would be used to pay the $183 million in restitution that Ulbricht owed to the US government. As Silk Road was involved in illegal sales of narcotics and firearms, most of the seized bitcoin was put into US court proceedings and has since been auctioned off by US Marshalls.
Two federal agents who pilfered bitcoin from Ulbricht’s stash are now facing charges themselves, including wire fraud and money laundering. The government auctioned off Ulbricht’s remaining bitcoin, with venture capitalist Tim Draper winning nine of the auctions, obtaining a stash of 30,000 bitcoins. Draper has since joined the movement calling for clemency for Ulbricht.
The campaign for Ulbricht’s clemency has gained momentum and has been buoyed by a promise from Donald Trump that he will liberate Ulbricht from federal prison by January 21, 2025. Ulbricht is currently serving a double life sentence for operating Silk Road, a sentence many consider excessive given that he is a non-violent offender and charges relating to claims that he had hired a hitman were dropped.
Ulbricht has been able to communicate with the outside world via his mother’s X (formerly Twitter) account. With no internet access in prison, he sends paper notes to his mother, Lyn Ulbricht, who then posts his words on X.
In the years since his imprisonment, Lyn Ulbricht has been leading the push for clemency for her son. She has created a Change.org petition that has received over 600,000 signatures. Signers claim that he is unlikely to re-offend if released.
Lyn Ulbricht has also been raising money on her son’s behalf by selling his physical art through a non-profit organization, Art4giving. The proceeds of these sales, which total $765,000, go to causes such as the prevention and treatment of drug addiction and support for recently released convicts’ efforts to reintegrate into society.
On the blockchain, an NFT featuring Ulbricht’s hand-drawn art from prison has also fetched seven figures at auction. However, the proceeds from these sales do not go to Ulbricht directly but instead are distributed to the Art4Giving fund and efforts to free Ross Ulbricht.
Furthermore, FreeRoss.org, Lyn Ulbricht’s website that she operates on behalf of Ross, accepts crypto donations. Its listed bitcoin wallet contains 0.14959432 BTC worth $11,500, and donors have also given him 1.5 BCH ($550), 881 DOGE ($150), and 0.19 ETH ($550).
While we can trace these donations, it remains unclear if Ross or Lyn owns other crypto assets beyond the wallets listed on FreeRoss.org. Neither he nor his family is obliged to disclose donations publicly. Despite having a substantial number of supporters worldwide, including some of the earliest and wealthiest Bitcoin investors, his current assets remain unknown.
Nevertheless, with Trump’s promise to pardon Ulbricht in his second presidential term, Ulbricht could potentially walk free, with a few thousand dollars at least, and perhaps a lot more.
