Donald Trump, the President of the United States, announced he will grant clemency to Ross Ulbricht (40), the founder of Silk Road, who was sentenced to life in prison. Silk Road is an anonymous drug and firearms transaction site, and during the presidential campaign, President Trump promised to release Ulbricht.
On the 21st (local time), the day after the presidential inauguration, President Trump said on his social networking service (SNS) Truth Social that he was pleased to call Ulbricht's mother and inform her that her son Ross would receive a full and unconditional pardon. He also remarked, "The human trash who worked to make Ulbricht guilty are like the same kind of lunatics involved in weaponizing the government against me."
Ulbricht grew up in Austin, Texas, and majored in physics and materials science at the University of Texas and Pennsylvania State University. In 2011, he established the online transaction site Silk Road to anonymously buy and sell illegal goods and services using Bitcoin and other virtual assets, operating under the alias "Dread Pirate Roberts," derived from a character in the movie "The Princess Bride."
In 2013, he was arrested after he paid a hitman $150,000 (approximately 20 million won) to kill a Silk Road user who had threatened him, saying, "If you don't forgive the $500,000 (approximately 70 million won) drug debt, I will reveal the identities of other users," which led to him being caught in an FBI investigation. Ulbricht was sentenced to life without parole in 2015 on charges of drug trafficking, criminal enterprise, and money laundering.
Silk Road was shut down in 2013 with Ulbricht's arrest. Although it operated for only two years, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that over $200 million (approximately 287.2 billion won) in illegal transactions took place during that time. Ulbricht is estimated to have collected approximately $85 million (approximately 122.1 billion won) in fees from it.
Even while incarcerated, Ulbricht maintained contact with the outside world through letters, blog posts, and X (formerly Twitter). Bloomberg noted, "Ulbricht is viewed as a figure symbolizing the original spirit of Bitcoin, which represents a digital economic ecosystem free from government interference." It added, "This aligns with the movement stemming from cyber-libertarianism, which perceives any interference with technological advancement as contrary to freedom." Some American libertarians and advocates for virtual assets supporting Ulbricht have claimed that the government excessively interferes in the free market.
Ulbricht's pardon was part of President Trump's promised pro-virtual asset policy. During the Libertarian National Convention last May, he stated, "If you elect me, I will begin reducing Ross Ulbricht's sentence from the first day of my inauguration," adding, "He has already served 11 years. We will send him home."