U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for running an underground online marketplace where drug dealers and others conducted more than $200 million in illicit trade using bitcoin.
Console Wars’ duo Jonah Tulis and Blake J. Harris have conducted more than 60 hours of interviews with Ulbricht, who became a cause célèbre among libertarians and cryptocurrency enthusiasts after being handed two life sentences.
Ross Ulbricht is free, but unproven allegations against the Silk Road founder overshadow his well deserved pardon in some corners of the internet.
Ross Ulbricht, known for creating the Silk Road website, was sentenced to life in prison in 2015. The site, accessible only through Tor, allowed anonymous purchases of illegal goods using Bitcoin. President Trump recently pardoned Ulbricht, sparking discussions within the crypto community.
Bitcoin is up nearly 5% after Donald Trump granted a full and unconditional pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the creator of darkweb marketplace Silk Road.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for running an underground online marketplace where drug dealers and others conducted more than $200 million in illicit trade using bitcoin.
In 2015, a 31-year-old yoga enthusiast from Austin named Ross Ulbricht was found guilty of being the online drug kingpin “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Convicted on 7 counts, the judge sentenced him to life in prison. Trump pardoned Ulbricht on Tuesday and now he’s a free man after more than 10 years in custody.
Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 on charges related to his website, where users could buy and sell drugs and other illegal goods with bitcoin.
President Donald Trump kept a campaign pledge to the cryptocurrency industry by granting a full pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road. The infamous dark web marketplace not only served as a hub for illicit drug sales but also emerged as one of the first real-world applications of Bitcoin.
Libertarian and crypto allies of Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for distributing drugs on his Silk Road website, leveraged President Trump’s desire for political support to secure his release.
Donald Trump has granted a full pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of online drug marketplace Silk Road who became a hero for America’s libertarian movement.