After President Donald Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, the Bitcoin community jumped in to support him. Many people are donating to his fund at FreeRoss.org. But does he really need the money?
According to Conor Grogan, a director at Coinbase, Ulbricht might already have millions in Bitcoin. Grogan pointed out that around 430 BTC, worth about $47 million, sits in wallets possibly linked to Ulbricht. These wallets have been inactive for over 13 years.
Grogan shared on X, “I found ~430 BTC across dozens of wallets associated with Ross Ulbricht that were not confiscated by the [U.S. government] and have been untouched for 13+ years. Back then these were probably dust wallets; now, collectively, they are worth about $47 million.”
Data from Arkham Intelligence backs up Grogan's claims. Fourteen Bitcoin addresses tied to Silk Road hold a total of $47 million. One wallet, starting with “1CQv,” alone contains over $9 million in Bitcoin.
Decrypt hasn’t confirmed if these wallets belong to Ulbricht or if the U.S. government has marked the funds for seizure. One wallet, labeled “Silk Road: Individual X (1HQ3G),” was accessed by the U.S. government during a forfeiture process in November 2020.
When the Bitcoin in wallet “1HQ3G” was moved in 2020, it was worth over $1 billion. Speculation ran wild that Ulbricht might have accessed the funds while in prison. However, the U.S. government later revealed that it had seized the Bitcoin from a hacker known only as “Individual X,” who stole it from a Silk Road account in 2012 or 2013.
If those wallets do belong to Ulbricht, it’s unclear whether he still has the private keys to access them. A significant amount of Bitcoin—about 20%—is believed to be lost in wallets because owners have lost access, died, or disappeared. This includes the wallet of Bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, which holds 1.1 million BTC, or around $115 billion.
Since his release, Ulbricht hasn’t given any interviews or responded to Grogan on X. Decrypt has reached out to him for a comment.
Meanwhile, donations have been pouring in for Ulbricht since his release from federal prison. The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken donated $111,111 to him on Wednesday.
According to Arkham Intelligence, Ulbricht’s wallet address has received 2.62 BTC, roughly $272,000, including the contribution from Kraken. Another address linked to Ulbricht has gathered $4,615 in Ethereum, USDC, Tether (USDT), and Binance Coin (BNB).
Journalist Pete Rizzo mentioned on X, “At this rate, he'll have $1 million in 3 days.”
If Ulbricht controls those wallets, it’s uncertain whether the U.S. government would try to confiscate any Silk Road-related funds. Earlier this month, a federal judge approved the sale of $6.5 billion in Bitcoin seized from Silk Road. Legal experts have told Decrypt that federal authorities could pursue any Bitcoin linked to Silk Road.
Eli Cohen, General Counsel at the tokenized asset platform Centrifuge, said, “If the authorities find assets later that they can link to the original crime(s), they could try to seize these even after release, assuming the statute of limitations has not expired.”
A large portion of Bitcoin held by the U.S. government comes from seizures by the Department of Justice. Cohen pointed to the 50,676 Bitcoin the IRS seized from another Silk Road hacker, James Zhong, in November 2021. He explained, “Normally, for federal crimes, the authorities would have frozen or confiscated any funds they believe are proceeds of the crime, including crypto like Bitcoin.”