430 BTC allegedly belonging to Ross Ulbricht found

Coinbase chief product officer Conor Grogan said he found approximately 430 bitcoins in dozens of wallets believed to be associated with or owned by Ross Ulbricht. Ross Ulbricht is the founder of the darknet site Silk Road, who was pardoned by Donald Trump on January 22. At the exchange rate as of January 22, they are estimated at approximately $47 million, reports RBC Crypto.

In 2013, Silk Road was closed by US intelligence agencies. Ulbricht was arrested and accused of drug trafficking, money laundering and creating a criminal community. In February 2015, he was sentenced to two life sentences and an additional 40 years in prison.

According to Grogan, the bitcoins he discovered were not confiscated by intelligence agencies when Silk Road was closed and remained untouched throughout Ulbricht’s prison sentence or more (up to 13 years). In his opinion, the wallets contained residual funds that were worth almost nothing at that time.

At the time Silk Road closed in October 2013, the Bitcoin exchange rate was around $120–$130. That is, by now the value of the remaining bitcoins has increased almost 1000 times.

Grogan clarified that he would not publish wallet addresses, but said that they are public (mentioned in court documents or directly related to those used by Silk Road or Ulbricht personally) and are already being tracked by many researchers.

It is not a fact that Ulbricht still has access to these wallets, Grogan noted. At the time of publication, all coins are still intact.

In May 2024, Trump promised to release Ulbricht if re-elected. At the end of October, he called on Bitcoin supporters to vote for him in the presidential election and again recalled plans to free Ulbricht, accompanying a post on the social network with the hashtag #FreeRossDayOne.

Many Bitcoin enthusiasts felt that Ulbricht’s life sentence was excessive and unfair. Since his imprisonment, a petition calling for his pardon on the website specially created for this freeross.org has collected more than 600 thousand signatures.

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Source: Cryptocurrency

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