Silk Road Wallets Wake Up After 10 Years, Move $3M in Bitcoin
Hundreds of crypto wallets linked to the now-defunct Silk Road darknet market woke up from a decade-long slumber on Tuesday, transferring over $3 million in Bitcoin to a single unidentified tackle.
The sudden exercise has sparked renewed consideration to digital belongings tied to the infamous platform that helped popularize Bitcoin in its early years.
Blockchain intelligence agency Arkham detected roughly 312 dormant wallets collectively shifting $3.14 million in BTC to the tackle “bc1q***ga54” over 12 hours.
The wallets nonetheless retain roughly $40 million in Bitcoin following the transfers, in accordance with Arkham’s newest knowledge.
Mystery Surrounds Decade-Old Wallets’ Sudden Activity
The cause behind the wallets’ reactivation stays unclear.
Coinbase Director Conor Grogan identified these holdings earlier this 12 months, estimating that they have been value round $47 million in Bitcoin throughout dozens of addresses probably linked to Ross Ulbricht, {the marketplace}’s creator.
Grogan resurfaced that January evaluation on Tuesday after a pseudonymous operator “0xG00gly” flagged the newest actions.
What recent hell is that this? pic.twitter.com/Pt64kB26pO
— Googly
(@0xG00gly) December 9, 2025
Individual transfers ranged from micro-amounts of 0.00006 BTC, roughly $5.58, to bigger sums exceeding 3.6 BTC, valued at $338,640.
The transactions adopted a sample of consolidation, with funds from a number of legacy addresses flowing into the only vacation spot pockets over a number of hours.
Several wallets confirmed connections to mining exercise from the 2011 period, when Bitcoin mining remained accessible to particular person individuals utilizing customary laptop gear.
Ulbricht himself has not publicly commented on the transfers.
He served a number of life sentences with out parole for creating Silk Road earlier than receiving a full and unconditional pardon from President Donald Trump in January by means of government order.
The former darknet operator delivered his first public speech following his release in May, emphasizing freedom and decentralization as guiding ideas for future technological development.
While Silk Road facilitated unlawful narcotics gross sales and different prohibited transactions, the platform performed a pivotal position in Bitcoin’s early adoption.
The market processed over 1.5 million transactions value an estimated $213 million between 2011 and its 2013 shutdown, all carried out utilizing cryptocurrency.
Ulbricht, a physics graduate and early Bitcoin advocate, envisioned the platform as a libertarian experiment in nameless commerce free of presidency interference.
However, prosecutors efficiently argued that it enabled widespread felony exercise.
Government Bitcoin Holdings Face Competing Policy Directions
The pockets exercise emerges amid ongoing debates over how authorities ought to deal with seized digital belongings.
The Department of Justice acquired approval in December to sell 69,370 Bitcoin, value $6.5 billion, confiscated from Silk Road, following a federal choose’s ruling that ended a contentious possession battle with Battle Born Investments.
That firm claimed possession by means of a chapter property tied to Raymond Ngan, allegedly the mysterious “Individual X” accused of stealing crypto from Silk Road.
Battle Born misplaced at each judicial degree, together with the Supreme Court’s refusal to listen to the case.
The firm’s legal professional criticized what he known as “the DOJ’s abuse of the Civil Asset Forfeiture course of” and accused officers of “procedural trickery” all through the litigation.
The accepted sale represents one of many largest authorities cryptocurrency liquidations in historical past.
Officials justified the decision, citing Bitcoin’s worth volatility, although they usually conduct such gross sales in smaller batches to reduce market disruption.
The choice got here regardless of Trump’s marketing campaign promise to determine a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” slightly than liquidating government-held cryptocurrency.
The proposed reserve would mirror the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, retaining all seized digital belongings to handle financial dangers.
Similar dormant pockets actions have triggered safety issues earlier than.
In July, another $8.6 billion in Bitcoin from wallets inactive since 2011 instantly consolidated, prompting hypothesis about potential hacks or compromised non-public keys.
Some observers linked these holdings to Roger Ver, the early Bitcoin advocate arrested in Spain on tax costs, although no affirmation emerged.
Bitcoin’s price has remained relatively stable regardless of these large-scale transfers. The cryptocurrency traded close to $92,500 on Wednesday, up 2.5% as merchants awaited the Federal Reserve’s last price choice of the 12 months.
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