On January 21, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts), the creator of a cryptomarketplace on the Tor network, which allowed users to anonymously buy and sell various items prohibited from free circulation using Bitcoin. Ulbricht had served nearly 10 years of a life sentence in the United States for creating the Silk Road website.
Although the charges and criminal offenses in the case against the creator of Silk Road were non-violent in nature, the judge who sentenced Ulbricht took into account numerous deaths related to drugs purchased through the platform. Throughout the trial, Ulbricht denied committing the crimes in question, insisting that weapons and prohibited substances were banned on Silk Road.
Since law enforcement arrested him with his laptop open, they had access to all his files, including the website’s code, personal messages between him and Silk Road employees, and a diary about the project’s operations.
Ross Ulbricht was sentenced in 2015 to two life sentences plus an additional 40 years. Trump called Ulbricht’s mother and informed her of her son’s release “as a gesture of respect to her and the libertarian community.”
Ross Ulbricht is a well-known libertarian who, in the early 2010s, created the Silk Road platform, where people could buy drugs, weapons, and various illegal services using Bitcoin. At its peak, the platform’s turnover reached $200 million. After Ulbricht’s arrest and imprisonment, FBI agents confiscated 1,600 Bitcoins from him.
Over the years, Ulbricht’s case has become a topic of discussion for a certain segment of the U.S. community, particularly within the crypto scene, which has supported Trump. For his supporters, Ulbricht’s life sentence is seen as excessively punitive.
Others convicted of similar offenses have received much lighter sentences. For example, Blake Benthall, who operated Silk Road 2.0, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of probation. Ulbricht’s associate, Thomas Clark, also known as Variety Jones, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year.
Ross Ulbricht’s laptop is stored in the FBI’s museum of artifacts.