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During his first days in office President Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road, and released Ulbricht from prison where he was serving two consecutive life sentences and an additional 40 years. This came after President Trump made a promise to the audience at last year’s Libertarian National Convention to pardon the Silk Road founder.
After Ulbricht was arrested on October 1st back in 2013, he was labeled the ‘mastermind’ behind the Silk Road which was a dark web marketplace for drugs and other illicit items and services. The Silk Road was accessible through Tor and the marketplace operated using bitcoin, of which Ross Ulbricht had an asinine amount of at the time of his arrest.
According to a 2018 Fortune report titled ‘Inside Uncle Sam’s Secret Bitcoin Hoard,’ Ulbricht had 144,000 bitcoins that belonged to him at the time of his arrest. Those were seized by the US Government and auctioned off for just $334 per bitcoin for a grand total of $49,536,000 which probably seemed like a fortune to everyone involved at the time.
But, if we suspend reality for a moment and assume Ross Ulbricht was still in possession of the 144,000 bitcoins today the value at this moment would be worth $15,232,723,200. That’s right, the value of Ross Ulbricht’s bitcoin that was auctioned off by the government for $49.5 million would be worth an estimated $15.23 billion this afternoon.
To be sure, Ulbricht would rather have freedom from a prison cell than the billions in bitcoin but that HAS to sting…
How Rich Is Ross Ulbricht Now?
Now, with all of that said, a new report from Coinbase director Conor Grogan on X (née Twitter) which was shared by Daily Hodl claims that he found around 430 BTC in wallets that are still associated with Ross Ulbricht that were not seized by the US Government and auctioned off. According to his posts on X, the current value of the BTC he found associated with wallets tied to Ross Ulbricht are worth around $47 million.
The Coinbase director didn’t want to share specific wallet addresses but did note that they come from wallets which were named in court documents.
As noted by Coinbase director Conor Grogan it is unlikely Ross Ulbricht still has the keys to these wallets stored somewhere. But that doesn’t mean that Ulbricht doesn’t, there’s a chance. All of that said, it shouldn’t be difficult for Ulbricht who is a folk hero on the Internet to millions to accumulate a new crypto fortune in a hurry through any number of ways.