US government confiscated $1.08 billion worth of bitcoins set in motion

Analyst firm PeckShield has documented the movement of 48,998 BTC (about $1.08 billion at the time of writing) confiscated by the US government from the Silk Road darknet marketplace.

30,174 BTC and 8999 BTC went to two new wallets, and another 9825 BTC went to the American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

Two US law enforcement addresses held 51,352 BTC seized from Silk Road in November 2021 and March 2022.

In 2015, a court found Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht guilty of operating a darknet market and other crimes, including drug trafficking and a money laundering conspiracy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 2019, venture capitalist Tim Draper campaigned for Ulbricht’s release. In March 2020, a petition with a similar demand garnered 275,000 signatures.

Later, billionaire Elon Musk called the sentence to the founder of Silk Road a bust. According to him, the reasons for the punishment “certainly were, but the sentence seems excessive.”


Source: Cryptocurrency

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