Transfers from Silk Road-Linked Bitcoin Wallets Exceed $3 Million

Recently, Bitcoin wallets associated with the infamous Silk Road marketplace conducted transfers worth over $3 million. This development follows a significant event from less than a year ago when former President Donald Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, who is currently incarcerated.

Key Takeaways

Silk Road-related wallets transferred approximately $3.14 million in Bitcoin to an untrackable address.
This is the largest activity from these wallets in five years, with previous transactions limited to three small test transfers earlier this year.
The original Silk Road wallets still possess around $38.4 million in Bitcoin.
Ross Ulbricht, who was pardoned in January, has been linked to dormant wallets that may still hold significant cryptocurrency assets.

On Tuesday, blockchain analysis platform Arkham reported that Silk Road-related wallets initiated around 176 transfers, marking the most substantial activity within the last five years. Earlier this year, these wallets engaged in only a few minor test transactions.

All transfers directed to a new unidentified cryptocurrency wallet, known as bc1qn. While the Silk Road-tagged wallets retain approximately $38.4 million in Bitcoin, the newly established address solely contains the $3.14 million acquired through these recent transactions.

Cointelegraph has not been able to independently verify the identity of the new wallet's owner and has reached out to Ulbricht for a statement.

Silk Road wallets, token holdings. Source: Arkham

In January, Trump provided a full pardon to Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. In 2015, Ulbricht was convicted for establishing and running Silk Road, a darknet marketplace that enabled anonymous transactions of illegal goods using Bitcoin.

Source: Free_Ross

Following his pardon, supporters have donated about $270,000 in Bitcoin to the Free Ross campaign, based on on-chain data.

Silk Road-linked Bitcoin wallets move $3M to new address

Potential Untapped Wealth in Silk Road-Linked Wallets

Although the U.S. government has confiscated at least $3.36 billion in Bitcoin connected to Silk Road, certain experts believe that Ulbricht may still possess multiple Bitcoin wallets that escaped seizure.

Conor Grogan, director of the Coinbase exchange, disclosed that 430 BTC, valued at around $47 million, remains untouched in wallets likely tied to Ulbricht, with some having been dormant for over 13 years.

Silk Road wallet 1cqvW, holdings. Source: Arkham

Another wallet associated with Silk Road and likely belonging to Ulbricht contains $8.3 million in Bitcoin. Aside from three minor test transactions in the past ten months, this wallet has been idle for 14 years, as reported by Arkham.

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