President Donald Trump Pardons OG Bitcoiner Ross Ulbricht

United States President Donald Trump has kept to his promise of pardoning Ross Ulbricht, the convicted OG Bitcoiner and creator of the darknet marketplace Silk Road, a few days after taking office.

According to an official tweet, Trump has signed the executive order for Ulbricht to leave prison and abandon his sentence after spending over a decade behind bars for several charges, including drug trafficking, human/sex trafficking, money laundering, and computer hacking.

U.S. authorities arrested and convicted Ulbricht about 12 years ago for operating Silk Road and enabling the sale of illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) using bitcoin (BTC). Between Silk Road’s inception in 2011 and Ulbricht’s arrest in 2013, the darknet marketplace processed over $1.2 billion in BTC transactions, making the platform one of the earliest to use BTC as a medium of exchange.

Trump Pardons Silk Road Founder

Ulbricht was sentenced to two life terms plus 40 years without the possibility of parole in 2015. Since then, several groups and individuals have rallied for his release or an even shorter sentence, insisting that the jail terms were too harsh for the crime he committed.

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to save the Silk Road founder from his life sentence. The president made the promise at a Libertarian National Convention in May 2024 and also in statements on social media platforms Truth Social and X. On some occasions, Trump said he would commute Ulbricht’s sentence, while on others, he promised a full pardon. 

The president has now kept his word and granted Ulbricht a full and unconditional pardon. He revealed that he called Ulbricht’s mother to give her the news. 

U.S. Gov. To Sell Silk Road BTC

In addition to the Ulbricht pardon announcement, Trump bashed the lawyers who convicted the Silk Road founder, revealing that he had faced the same experience during his court battles and describing his life sentences as ridiculous.

“The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me,” Trump added.

While Ulbricht has been cleared to return home, a U.S. court has cleared the proceeds of his brainchild for sale. The U.S. government is gearing up to sell about $6.5 billion confiscated in connection with the Silk Road crackdown.