A few blockchain analysis firms reported that the donation wallet of Ross Ulbricht has received a donation of 300 Bitcoin, valued at $31.5 million. The amount received in BTC was confirmed by Lookonchain in an X post on June 01, 2025, yet the transfer occurred just after the presidential pardon by Donald Trump on January 01, 2025.
Following this deposition of 300 Bitcoins in Ross’s wallets, there has been speculation about who transferred these BTCs to his donation wallet.
It is worth noting that the authorities in 2013 seized around 174,000 BTC from Ross and Silk Road-related wallets. Over the past few years, several untouched wallets linked with Ulbricht have been identified holding hundreds and thousands of Bitcoins.
What is the Silk Road incident?
Ross Ulbricht launched Silk Road, an illegal online marketplace on the dark web, it allowed anonymous buying and selling of drugs and other illicit goods using Bitcoin.
In just a few months, the marketplace became popular, drawing the attention of the watchdog. The site handled over $1.2 billion in transactions, drawing FBI attention.
Yet in 2013, Ross was detained by the authorities as he was tracked through the email he used and the traceable Bitcoin transactions. Furthermore, the FBI seized 174,000 BTC, and in 2015, he was convicted and sentenced to life, but pardoned in 2025. Corrupt agents and unproven murder-for-hire allegations complicated the case.
Successors such as Silk Road 2.0 appeared after the closure of Silk Road, but they were swiftly targeted, demonstrating that the model could not withstand contemporary law enforcement strategies.
With the seizure of 174,000 Bitcoin in 2013 and 50,676 Bitcoin in 2021 by a hacker, Ulbricht had very few verified assets: 430 Bitcoin in inactive wallets, $44.8 million, and access unknown.
A quick brief of Bitcoin prices
As of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $ 104,234 with a weekly loss of 4.21%, and its trading volume is $40.61 billion with a growth of 14.16%, and a market cap of $2.19 trillion.
With the most recent decline in Bitcoin trading price, it is currently exchanging hands below its 20-day exponential moving average and at the same time above 50, 100, and 200-day EMAs.
Bitcoin has most recently surpassed its all-time high of $109k and now has established a fresh ATH just below the $112k mark. Also, its dominance has grown more than 6% in the past 90 days.
Following these back-to-back moments, there are speculations that Bitcoin could soon reach a new milestone, somewhat near to $120k; on the other hand, its advocates see Bitcoin heading towards the $150k mark.
By May 2025, Bitcoin’s integration into traditional finance had increased, with spot Bitcoin ETFs witnessing net inflows of almost $35 billion.
