Silk Road-linked BTC wallets awaken after a decade, moving $3.14M in dormant assets

Sleeping giants stir. Bitcoin wallets untouched since the Silk Road era just woke up—and moved millions.

The Ghosts of Crypto Past

Blockchain doesn't forget. A cluster of wallets, silent since the darknet marketplace's heyday, just executed their first transaction in over ten years. The total haul? A cool $3.14 million in Bitcoin. This isn't just old coins changing hands; it's a timestamped event, a direct line back to crypto's most infamous chapter.

Why the Movement Matters

Dormant coins moving signal more than just a portfolio rebalance. They trigger forensic analysis, market speculation, and a fresh wave of regulatory side-eye. When assets linked to a defunct black market reactivate, it forces a conversation about provenance, ownership, and the long, uncensorable memory of the ledger.

The Bullish Undertone

Forget the shady origins for a second—this is a masterclass in Bitcoin's core value proposition: durability. A digital asset, acquired under who-knows-what circumstances a decade ago, retained and transferred its full value without asking permission from a bank, a government, or a compliance officer. Try that with a forgotten offshore account after a decade of dormancy—your assets would have been 'reallocated' by some fund manager's third yacht payment.

The ledger remembers everything. And sometimes, it decides to collect.

Silk Road wallets move Bitcoin for the second time in 2025

Silk Road, shut down by the FBI in 2013, was infamous for facilitating the sale of illegal goods using Bitcoin through the dark web. Founder Ross Ulbricht was convicted in connection with the marketplace, though he was later pardoned by President Donald TRUMP in late January this year. 

“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,” Trump posted on his app Truth Social.

Coinbase Director Conor Grogan had been tracking the existence of Silk Road wallets that were untouched by authorities at the time of Ulbricht’s pardon. Through a thread on social platform X, Grogan mentioned he identified roughly $47 million worth of Bitcoins linked to Ulbricht that had been securely stashed for over 13 years. 

On Tuesday, he resurfaced that post while responding to the pseudonymous Plasma Foundation operator “0xG00gly,” who had flagged the latest transfers.

“I found ~430 BTC across dozens of wallets associated with Ross Ulbricht that were not confiscated by the US government and have been untouched for 13+ years,” Grogan wrote. “Back then these were probably dust wallets, now, collectively, they are worth about $47 million.”

Cryptopolitan had reported back in May that two long-dormant Silk Road wallets transferred a combined 3,421 Bitcoins, valued at roughly $322.5 million at the time. Per Whale Alert, these accounts were first established in July 2013 and were inactive for more than a decade, much like the ones that made the Tuesday transfer.

Blockchain analytics firm Blockchair noted that the initial transfer alone involved 2,343.481 BTC, distributed in several outputs. One of the wallets executed 21 outputs, while 30 of the outputs were directed to a newly generated wallet. The total value of Bitcoin moved in this first transaction exceeded $221 million.

US government Silk Road Bitcoin seizures

At least one wallet in the current Arkham Intelligence cluster, labeled “Silk Road: Individual X (1HQ3G),” had previously been involved in a US government forfeiture procedure in November 2020. At that time, chatter on social media pointed the ownership finger to Ulbricht, claiming a “third-party” had access to the Bitcoin and moved it while Ulbricht was incarcerated.

Authorities later clarified that the funds were not moved by Ulbricht, explaining that a hacker identified only as “Individual X” had stolen the Bitcoin from a Silk Road account in 2012 or 2013 worth over $1 billion.

Much of the Bitcoin currently held by the United States is from Silk Road-related crimes. In November 2021, the Internal Revenue Service confiscated 50,676 BTC from another hacker, James Zhong.

Federal authorities freeze or seize assets deemed proceeds of criminal activity, including cryptos like Bitcoin.

After his pardon, Ross Ulbricht delivered his first speech upon release in May, stating that the Trump administration shared his sentiments about freedom and decentralization. 

“Just as long as we can agree that we deserve freedom, and that decentralization is how we secure it, we can be united. We can have each other’s backs. Just like you had mine,” the Silk Road marketplace founder surmised.

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