Elon Musk, who headed the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), said that the founder of the darknet platform Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, will receive a presidential pardon.

Musk wrote about this on the social network X in response to a comment from a user who called on Trump to pardon Ross Ulbricht. Libertarian National Committee (LNC) Chair Angela McArdle, citing the Trump administration, confirmed that this should happen in the coming days.

In 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison for running the Silk Road darknet marketplace, where drugs and other prohibited goods and services could be purchased for cryptocurrency. Later, the creator of the “shadow” site repented of his actions, admitting that he “chose the wrong path.”

In May 2024, as part of his election campaign, Trump promised to commute Ulbricht’s sentence on the first day of his presidency. Trump repeated these words at the Libertarian National Convention, so Ulbricht’s supporters and many in the crypto community are optimistic that the president will deliver on his promise.

In his inauguration speech, Trump did not touch on topics related to cryptocurrencies, the creation of a government reserve in bitcoins, or the development of the United States as a world leader in the crypto industry. However, users of the Polymarket forecasting platform appreciated Ulbricht has a 98% chance of being pardoned within Trump’s first 100 days as president.

In January, a California District Court allowed the US Marshals Service to sell 69,370 BTC previously confiscated from the darknet site Silk Road. It will take several months for the department to organize the sale of bitcoins.