Two dormant Silk Road-linked wallets on May 5 moved 3,421 Bitcoin worth approximately $322.5 million. Whale Alert noted the wallets were first activated in July 2013, marking their first transaction in over a decade since inception.
The new addresses that received the funds remain idle, while the original wallets reflect a zero balance. Data showed that the transactions included a minimal fee of 0.000105 BTC, suggesting a non-urgent transfer with internal restructuring rather than immediate plans to liquidate assets.
Two Silk Road-linked wallets moved 3,241 BTC
On-chain data revealed two separate transactions on Monday that originated from wallets established in July 2013 during the Silk Road saga. Multichain explorer and analytics tool Blockchair found that the initial transaction involved 2,343.481 BTC.
Data also showed that the first wallet to send funds executed 21 outputs, with 30 routed to a newly generated wallet. The total value of the digital assets exceeded $221 million at the time of the transfer.
Whale alert showed the transfer occurred in a series of outputs, with the largest being 2,186 BTC sent in one chunk. The on-chain tracking data platform also noted that no portion of the funds has moved to any exchange wallets.
The blockchain tracking tool also flagged a second transaction involving 1,078.99 BTC to a wallet that was also initialized on July 11, 2013. The funds were transferred at block height 895,433 and are now valued at approximately $101 million.
Whale Alert noted the second movement shortly after the first wallet became active, but no movement has occurred from the receiving wallet since the transfer was completed. The second wallet also used a similar transaction fee, according to the blockchain tracking platform.
Sani, the architect behind Timechain Index, highlighted that the digital assets in question trace back to the infamous darknet marketplace, the Silk Road.
“After checking some of the origins, they linked back to [the] Silk Road, withdrawn during 2012.”
– Sani , Founder of Timechain Index.
Wallet linked to Silk Road founder re-surfaces after a decade
Earlier this year, Director at Coinbase Conor Grogan flagged 430 BTC distributed across various wallets potentially linked to the founder of Silk Road Ross Ulbricht. The exchange’s official said the digital asset holdings, estimated to be worth $47 million, had been untouched for over a decade.
Grogan also acknowledged that the funds were not part of the more than 100,000 BTC seized by the U.S. authorities during Silk Road’s 2013 shutdown. He noted the wallets had grown substantially due to Bitcoin’s surge in price. Grogan revealed the screenshot of one notable wallet with 89.77 BTC, valued at approximately $9.5M. There were also smaller holdings, such as 87.7 Bitcoin Cash (BCH), worth around $39,700 at the time.
The Coinbase official suggested that Ulbricht still possessed airdrop rewards linked to the wallets but questioned whether the private keys required to access the funds remain available to him after years of inactivity.
Grogan also addressed concerns about the potential implications of publicizing his finding, concerns it might direct unnecessary attention toward Ulbricht. He said that the wallet details are publicly accessible and have also been referenced in court documents.
The Silk Road marketplace founder was convicted in 2015 for his role in operating the platform. He later received a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump on January 22 after serving over a decade in prison.
A few days after Ulbricht’s pardon, the Bitcoin community rallied and poured crypto into Ulbricht’s donation fund at FreeRoss.org. Kraken Exchange also donated $111,111 BTC to Ulbricht just to make sure he’s able to land on his feet after incarceration.
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