Silk Road Founder Lands 300 BTC Windfall from Shadowy Donor

Bitcoin’s original outlaw gets an ironic payday—proving crypto still loves a rogue.

Who needs KYC when you’ve got legacy notoriety? The donation raises eyebrows—and questions about crypto’s moral compass.

Meanwhile, traditional finance gatekeepers clutch their pearls (and their 2% management fees).

ZachXBT was able to track the funds’ origin back to a suspicious centralized Bitcoin mixing service called Jambler. He stated that Jambler was an odd choice, considering most traders tend to use the more widely used decentralized privacy tools like Wasabi or Samourai. Meanwhile, he said very few entities regularly use Jambler for large funds.

Not only that, the blockchain investigator also discovered that it was likely the 300 BTC originated from two dormant addresses. One address was created in 2014, while the other wallet was active back in 2019. However, the second wallet was previously flagged as suspicious by compliance tools.

Moreover, ZachXBT found that the two wallets had previously deposited large amounts of crypto into Jambler sometime between April and May. The on-chain investigator noted that the deposits match the timing of the donation sent to Ulbricht’s wallet.

Ever since he was released from prison thanks to a pardon from President TRUMP last January, the Silk Road founder has been trying to auction some of his personal belongings. So far, he has raised more than $1.8 million worth of BTC from the sales, garnering support from the crypto community.

Most recently, TRON (TRX) founder Justin Sun gifted Ulbricht the iconic banana and duct tape artwork dubbed the “Comedian” on May 30. Sun previously purchased the art installation from Sotheby’s in an auction at a final bid of $6.2 million.