Ross Ulbricht Pardoned by President Trump After Nearly 11 Years in Prison

On January 21, 2025 — his first day in office — President Trump granted a full pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road marketplace who had been serving a life sentence since 2015.

Ulbricht, known online as "Dread Pirate Roberts," created and operated the anonymous digital marketplace between 2011 and 2013. He was convicted of distributing narcotics, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, computer hacking conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy.

Trump had pledged at the 2024 Libertarian Party national convention to commute Ulbricht's sentence on his first day in office. The pardon was celebrated by many in the libertarian and cryptocurrency communities who had long argued that Ulbricht's life sentence was disproportionate to his crimes.