A fundraiser for Ross Ulbricht’s — the founder of the world’s first darknet black market Silk Road — life after prison release saw more than a quarter million dollars of donations.
United States President Donald Trump pardoned Ulbricht after promising to do so at the beginning of his presidency on multiple occasions. Imprisoned 28, the newly freed man is now 40 — he publicly thanked the president after letting him out after eleven years in prison.
The Free Ross Foundation started to raise funds for Ulbricht again after his release, this time to facilitate his introduction into society after spending most of his adult life behind bars. “All funds that were raised to free Ross from prison can only be used for expenses related to securing his freedom or criminal justice reform,” the Foundation explained.
Kraken—one of the oldest still-operating crypto exchanges—announced in an X post that it donated $111,111 in Bitcoin (BTC) to the cause. “All of us at Kraken want to make sure that after what you’ve been through, you’re able to land on your feet with the support of the community that loves you most, the Bitcoin community.”
As of press time, Free Ross Foundation’s donation addresses so far raised $261,350 worth of Bitcoin, $2,375 of Ethereum (ETH), $1,215 of USD Coin (USDC), $1,000 of Tether (USDT), $880 of Solana (SOL), $200 of Cardano (ADA) and $40 of Tron (TRX). This translates to a total of $267,150—but it does not include the imperscrutable Monero (XMR) donations and PayPal fiat money donations.
What was Silk Road?
Silk Road was an online darknet marketplace launched in 2011. It operated on the Tor network and allowed users to buy and sell illegal goods and services anonymously using Bitcoin. The marketplace became notorious for facilitating the trade of drugs and was shut down by law enforcement in 2013, leading to the arrest of its founder, Ross Ulbricht.
