After being pardoned by President Trump, Ross Ulbricht tweeted for the first time in over 11 years, expressing gratitude for second chances and support, while his associated cryptocurrency token experienced a price drop following a three-month surge.
On Jan. 24, Ross Ulbricht made his appearance on X for the first time after 11 years in prison. Ross Ulbricht took to X to thank President Donald Trump, who fully pardoned his sentencing of life without parole and called the sentencing ‘Ridiculous.’
In the X post, Ulbricht emphasized the importance of ‘second chances’ and thanked all his supporters, saying “it is a victory, and it is your victory too.”
Ulbricht was the founder of the Silk Road darknet marketplace. Silk Road operated as a secret service on the Tor network and facilitated the anonymous buying and selling of illegal drugs as well as other goods using Bitcoin (BTC).
He was sentenced to life in 2015 after being convicted in a federal trial on multiple counts, including conspiracy to engage in a racketeering enterprise, money laundering, and hacking of computers.
Ulbricht, whose X account was run by his wife until now, previously tweeted that he was not associated with any meme coin bearing his name. However, a cryptocurrency of a similar name was launched in Jun. 2024, which soared as high as $0.04243 on Jan. 22, 2025, the day Ulbricht was fully pardoned by the President.
The ROSS token has now seen a dip in its price after almost three months of being bullish, as per CoinMarketCap.
Does Ross Ulbricht have any crypto holdings to his name?
As reported by Fortune Crypto, Ross Ulbricht had over 144,000 BTCs when he got arrested. After his arrest, nearly $184 million was forfeited by the court, resulting in government auctions of the BTCs. The U.S. Marshals Service disposed of its BTCs in 2014 when the asset’s price crashed to $300. The auctions raised $48 million, a small percentage of the $14 billion they would be worth today. The FBI wallet that sold Ulbricht’s crypto now has a balance of nearly $129,000.
As of now, it looks like even as he is pardoned, Ulbricht is unlikely to recover his forfeited assets, as the law does not retroactively return property once the proceeds have been spent.
However, on Jan. 23, Kraken donated about $111,111 in BTC to Ulbricht to help him get off his feet now that he is a free man.
