President Trump has followed through on one of his reelection campaign promises to pardon Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road creator integrally connected to Bitcoin’s early history, who has been in prison for 12 years. Ross Ulbricht Freed From Prison President Donald Trump has officially signed an executive order to commute the sentence of the founder of the darknet Silk Road marketplace. “I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbright to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,” Trump wrote in a Jan. 21 post on his Truth Social platform. The president slammed the prosecutors involved, calling Ulbricht’s sentence of 40 years plus two life sentences “ridiculous.” Ulbricht operated Silk Road, a large-scale marketplace that used Bitcoin for payments, from 2011 to 2013, using the nickname Dread Pirate Roberts. He was arrested in 2013 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2015 for his role in creating and running the platform. After Silk Road was shut down, U.S. authorities confiscated roughly 174,000 BTC from wallets associated with the marketplace. The government has since auctioned off most of the BTC. Freeing Ulbricht was one of Trump’s many promises to the cryptocurrency community on the campaign trail, with the president pledging to pardon the Silk Road creator on day one of office if reelected. “Words cannot express how grateful we are,” the family’s Free Ross campaign account said on X. “President Trump is a man of his word and he just saved Ross’s life. ROSS IS A FREE MAN!!!!!” Why Bitcoiners Advocated Strongly For Ulbricht’s Release Crypto fans have long petitioned for Ulbricht’s release for several reasons. Some argued that it was disproportionately harsh and he didn’t deserve to rot in jail for creating a darknet market where users freely sold narcotics and other illegal products and services. Other crypto enthusiasts have described him as a Bitcoin legend due to his early contributions to the Bitcoin market. Notably, Silk Road was one of the first peer-to-peer exchanges to accept Bitcoin, popularizing the use of the alpha crypto. “I owe everything to Ross Ulbricht. Crypto changed my life. Crypto became big because of him. He made the ultimate sacrifice. We all benefited from his work.” OG Bitcoin developer Amir Taaki quipped on X. Trump’s other notable crypto-related campaign promises included creating a national Bitcoin strategic reserve, appointing a more crypto-friendly Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, and transforming the U.S. into the crypto capital of the planet.
