In a surprising development, a Coinbase executive has identified several Bitcoin wallets reportedly linked to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the infamous Silk Road marketplace. These wallets, untouched for over 13 years, hold approximately 430 Bitcoin, now valued at around $47 million. The revelation comes shortly after Ulbricht’s release from prison on January 21, 2025, following a full pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Conor Grogan, Coinbase’s director of product strategy, shared his findings on X (formerly Twitter), stating that dozens of wallets associated with Ulbricht had been uncovered. These wallets, once holding what would have been considered negligible amounts of Bitcoin, have grown significantly in value due to Bitcoin’s meteoric rise.
“I found around 430 BTC across dozens of wallets linked to Ross Ulbricht that were not confiscated by the U.S. government. Back then, these were likely ‘dust wallets,’ but now they collectively hold about $47 million,” Grogan noted.
Ross Ulbricht, who was arrested in 2013 and sentenced to two life terms plus 40 years in 2015 for charges including operating a criminal enterprise and money laundering, had used Bitcoin as the primary currency on Silk Road’s darknet marketplace. While authorities seized a staggering 174,000 BTC in 2013, smaller wallets like these appear to have been overlooked.
One of the identified wallets contains 88.77 BTC, valued at over $9.4 million. Interestingly, these wallets also hold assets like Bitcoin Cash (BCH) from the 2017 hard fork. However, Grogan speculated that Ulbricht might not have access to the private keys, making it unlikely he could retrieve the funds.
Ulbricht’s recent pardon, a campaign promise fulfilled by President Trump on his first full day in office, has sparked renewed interest in his story and the Bitcoin legacy of Silk Road. The discovery of these untouched wallets adds another layer of intrigue to the already complex narrative surrounding cryptocurrency’s early days.
Despite the controversy, this development serves as a reminder of Bitcoin’s extraordinary journey from being a niche digital currency to becoming a multi-trillion-dollar asset class, transforming lives and rewriting financial history along the way.
