US President Donald Trump has officially announced that he will pardon Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. In an announcement on Truth Social, President Trump said:
“I just called Ross William Ulbright’s mother to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just issued a full and unconditional pardon for her son Ross signed.”
In October 2013, Ulbricht made headlines for being the face behind the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts,” or DPR. Arrested at the Glen Park Branch Library in San Francisco, the 30-year-old Ph.D. A student studying solar cells was caught red-handed for being the mastermind of one of the largest darknet marketplaces.
Silk Road paves the way for Bitcoin as a currency
Silk Road was launched in 2011 and became famous thanks to Tor and Bitcoin (BTC). It was a marketplace where people could buy drugs, especially MDMA, without revealing their personal information.
Notably, this marketplace became the first major store to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as a means of payment, as it was its primary currency. This played an important role in the adoption of the royal coin, but it also gave the coin a reputation as a medium for criminal activities.
After his arrest, several inconsistencies about the case came to light, including Ulbricht’s claim that he was the creator of the marketplace, but not its operator at the time of his arrest. However, this allegation, along with other inconsistencies including corruption involving key investigative officials, made no difference in his conviction.
Ulbricht was sentenced to a double life plus forty years in prison for seven criminal offenses. This included trafficking in narcotics, distribution of narcotics via the Internet and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Moreover, this was a severe punishment compared to Thomas White, the creator of Silk Road 2.0. White was sentenced to 5 years and 4 months in prison. About the conviction itself, Trump said:
“The scum who worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics involved in the modern weaponization of the government against me. He received two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”