United States: As U.S. President Donald Trump executed his power on Tuesday, he gave Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht a full pardon. Ulbricht faced life imprisonment because he built an underground Bitcoin-powered trading platform that served drug dealers and illicit market operators in 2013, as reported by Reuters.
During his campaign, Trump promised to release Ulbricht and kept his word by pardoning the criminal server two years after Ulbricht’s arrest and sentencing, which created the first major U.S. national case against Bitcoin.
Trump’s Statement and Ulbricht’s Release
“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 said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Trump informed Ulbricht’s mother when he explained that his pardon was complete without any terms. After President Trump’s announcement, Ulbricht left a Federal prison in Arizona on Tuesday night, per Bureau of Prisons data.
BREAKING: Here's the first image of Ross Ulbricht leaving prison as a free man 🧡 pic.twitter.com/j2vYeypmDs
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) January 22, 2025
“After enduring over a decade of incarceration, this decision offers Ross the opportunity to begin anew, to rebuild his life, and to contribute positively to society,” Brandon Sample, Ulbricht’s clemency attorney, said in a statement.
The new Trump administration plans to make rules more favorable to the cryptocurrency industry after the Biden-led previous administration tightened up on regulations.
Trump told a Libertarian National Convention in May that he planned to have Ulbricht’s sentence reduced. The Libertarian Party wanted Ulbricht to go free, arguing the government went too far in its investigation.
BITCOIN PAYMENTS
After two years, from 2011 until 2013, prosecutors revealed that Silk Road operated as a worldwide black market while 100,000 people purchased and sold drugs totaling $214 million through Bitcoin payments.
Prosecutors proved some Silk Road drug purchases caused customer fatalities.
Digital payments through Bitcoin on the Tor network provided users complete anonymity when accessing Silk Road.
According to prosecutors, Ulbricht managed Silk Road operations using the name Dread Pirate Roberts, which is based on a movie character from 1987 and worked hard to keep the platform running.
🔥🔥🔥Trump freed Silk Road founder, Ross Ulbricht, from his double life sentence! pic.twitter.com/tnT1gFUHRi
— Jordy Jets (@JordyJets) January 22, 2025
According to the evidence, they planned to have several people killed to make sure the operation stayed safe, but there’s no proof anyone was ever killed.
The defense lawyer during Ulbricht’s trial explained that Silk Road started as an open and unregulated internet marketplace. According to his defense team, Ulbricht transitioned control of the Silk Road to others before returning willingly to face criminal charges as a scapegoat.
Libertarian Support for Ulbricht’s Freedom
“I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives and have their privacy and anonymity,” Ulbricht said at his sentencing hearing in May 2015.
A federal jury from Manhattan convicted Ulbricht in February 2015 for trafficking drugs online and attempting to break into computers while transferring large amounts of money, as reported by Reuters.
BREAKING: Ross Ulbricht Officially FREED! https://t.co/TmA3M5UEyA #Push #RossUlbricht via @DailyNoahNews
— Connee Holcomb (@ConneeHolcomb) January 22, 2025
“What you did was unprecedented,” remarked Katherine Forrest, a former U.S. District Judge, when she sentenced Ulbricht. “And in breaking that ground as the first person, you sit here as the defendant having to pay the consequences for that.”