Cryptocurrency wallets connected to the Silk Road darknet marketplace are becoming active again, nearly a year after former US President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to its imprisoned founder, Ross Ulbricht.
On Tuesday, these Silk Road-associated wallets executed transfers totaling approximately $3.14 million in Bitcoin (BTC), according to blockchain data service Arkham.
This marks the most significant activity for these wallets in the past five years, with only three minor test transactions occurring earlier this year.
All transfers were sent to an unidentified cryptocurrency wallet, bc1qn. The primary Silk Road-associated wallets still possess around $38.4 million in Bitcoin, while the newly established address holds solely the $3.14 million from the recent transfers.
Cointelegraph has not independently verified the ownership of the new wallet and has contacted Ulbricht for further comments.
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In January, Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who had been sentenced to a double life term without parole.
Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 for his involvement in creating and managing Silk Road, a darknet marketplace enabling anonymous transactions of illegal goods with Bitcoin.
Following the pardon, approximately $270,000 in Bitcoin donations has been contributed to the Free Ross campaign, based on on-chain data.
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Silk Road founder may still hold millions in unseized crypto wallets
The US government seized at least $3.36 billion in Bitcoin from Silk Road, but some analysts suggest that Ross may have multiple Bitcoin wallets that were overlooked during the seizure.
Conor Grogan, a director at Coinbase, noted that 430 BTC, valued at nearly $47 million, remains unspent in wallets likely tied to Ulbricht, dormant for over 13 years.
Another wallet associated with Silk Road that is likely owned by Ulbricht holds $8.3 million in Bitcoin. Aside from three small test transactions over the last ten months, it has been inactive for 14 years, according to Arkham.
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