Ross Ulbricht has thanked Donald Trump for giving him a full and unconditional pardon—and hinted that he plans to play a role in public life.
The 40-year-old founded Silk Road, a darknet marketplace where illegal drugs were bought and sold anonymously using Bitcoin.
It operated from 2011 to 2013, and Ulbricht was later handed two life sentences plus 40 years with no chance of parole for his role in running the marketplace.
In a video posted on Twitter, he said: “Thank you so much President Trump, for giving me this amazing blessing. I am so, so grateful to have my life back, to have my future back, to have this second chance.”
Ulbricht described his release as an “important moment” for his family—and all those who campaigned for his release, with critics describing his punishment as excessive.
More than 600,000 people had signed a Change.org petition asking for clemency given that Ulbricht was a first-time, non-violent offender. Bitcoiners had argued he embodied the cryptocurrency’s core values.
“This is a victory, and it’s your victory too,” Ulbricht said. “This is an important moment for everybody, everywhere who loves freedom and who cares about second chances.”
Looking exhausted and relieved, he said his release feels “amazing” and “overwhelming”—and that he now plans to spend time with his family “so that we can reunite, be whole again and heal.”
Ulbricht added: “But there’s a lot to talk about, and I look forward to re-engaging with the free world. Once I’m feeling up to it, we’ll talk again.”
Trump had pledged to pardon the entrepreneur while on the campaign trail—including at the Libertarian National Convention last May, despite being heckled and booed by the crowd.
More than 2.5 BTC (worth about $277,000 at the time of writing) has been donated to an official wallet belonging to the Free Ross campaign, with crypto exchange Kraken sending $111,000 to help him “land on his feet.”
As Decrypt reported, that’s despite Coinbase executive Conor Grogan revealing that Ulbricht may be sitting on a crypto fortune.
An estimated 430 BTC that was never seized by the government currently sits untouched across a myriad of wallets linked to Ulbricht, but it’s unclear whether he has the private keys to access this $47 million windfall.
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