The odds of Trump pardoning Ross Ulbricht have grown to 95% on prediction market, Kalshi.
“Immense gratitude to everyone who voted for President Trump on my behalf,” the Silk Road founder wrote in a November X post.
Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht’s odds of receiving a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump in the first 100 days have reached 95% on Kalshi.
In May 2024, President-elect Trump spoke at the Libertarian Party’s National Convention and promised to secure Ulbricht’s release, telling the audience:
“If you vote for me, on day one, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht to a sentence of time served. He has already served 11 years. We are going to get him home.”
At the 2024 Bitcoin conference in July, Trump doubled down on his promise to free Ulbricht, a cause the crypto community and Bitcoiners, who share a libertarian ethos, champion.
In 2011, Ross Ulbricht, known online as “Dread Pirate Roberts,“ founded Silk Road, a dark web marketplace that specialized in illegal products and services.
US officials took Ulbricht into custody in October 2013 after a two-year investigation into the online black market, leading them to close the platform and seize roughly 174,000 Bitcoin.
Law enforcement seized Ulbricht’s laptop and external hard drives, which later served as critical pieces of evidence during his trial.
The US authorities charged Ulbricht with aiding drug distribution, leading a criminal enterprise, conspiring to hack computers, committing identity fraud, and laundering money.
Ulbricht stood trial in Manhattan court in February 2014 and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In the following year, a jury convicted the Silk Road founder on all charges.
On May 29, 2015, Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan’s Southern District sentenced Ulbricht to life in prison after he sought leniency.
Recently, the Silk Road founder expressed his trust in President-elect Trump to keep his word and commute his life sentence.
“After 11-plus years in darkness, I can finally see the light of freedom at the end of the tunnel. Thank you so much, Donald Trump,” Ulbricht wrote on Nov. 12.
