On the evening of January 21 local time, Trump announced on the 'Truth Social' platform that he had signed a pardon for Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the 'Silk Road'. The 'Silk Road' trading platform was established in 2011 and was rife with illegal activities such as drug trafficking, illegal weapons sales, assassination contracts, and human trafficking through virtual currency transactions. The FBI shut down the platform in 2013, and Ross was arrested; in 2015, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Some Trump supporters believe that the 'Silk Road' promoted the development of cryptocurrency and that Ross's sentencing was too harsh, which sparked the 'Free Ross' protest movement. Trump's pardon of Ross fulfills his campaign promise to the cryptocurrency community and libertarian voters. This action has received enthusiastic support from the cryptocurrency community, regarded as an affirmation of internet freedom and privacy rights, reinforcing Bitcoin's status as a decentralized payment tool, but it has also triggered intense controversy in political and legal circles, being accused of potentially sending the wrong message and undermining the government's authority to combat cybercrime.
On the other hand, FTX founder SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried) was sentenced to 25 years in prison in New York, USA, on March 28, 2024, for stealing $8 billion from customers of the FTX cryptocurrency trading platform. On April 11 local time, he appealed the 25-year prison sentence. Currently, the situation with FTX is that the FTX debtor restructuring plan officially took effect on January 3, allowing customers to claim and receive refunds.
