President Trump fulfilled one of his major campaign promises – at least to members of the crypto community – by pardoning the sentence of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.
“I just called Ross William Ulbricht’s mother to let her know that in her honor and in honor of the libertarian movement, which has supported me so strongly, I had the pleasure of signing a full pardon and unconditional love for his son, Ross,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social article.
The ruling ensures imminent release for Ulbricht, who was convicted in 2015 of engaging in an ongoing criminal enterprise and distributing narcotics, as well as numerous related crimes, through his operation of the Silk Road darknet market. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Ulbricht’s case has become a cause celebre for many in the crypto community who note that he did not himself sell drugs or other illegal items, but rather operated a platform where others were allowed to transact.
Candidate Trump then promised a commutation of Ulbricht’s sentence “from day one” last May, during a speech to the Libertarian Party congress.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) rose in the minutes following the news, perhaps because the pardon, along with a flurry of executive orders over the past few hours, signal the president’s intention to keep his promises to campaign.
Another of these promises, of course, was a much more favorable regulatory stance on crypto, including the possibility of creating a strategic reserve of bitcoins.
