Hundreds of crypto wallets linked to the now-defunct Silk Road darknet marketplace awakened from a decade-long slumber on Tuesday, transferring over $3 million in Bitcoin to a single unidentified address.
The sudden activity has sparked renewed attention to digital assets tied to the notorious platform that helped popularize Bitcoin in its early years.
Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham detected approximately 312 dormant wallets collectively moving $3.14 million in BTC to the address “bc1q***ga54” over 12 hours.
The wallets still retain roughly $40 million in Bitcoin following the transfers, according to Arkham’s latest data.
Source: ArkhamMystery Surrounds Decade-Old Wallets’ Sudden Activity
The reason behind the wallets’ reactivation remains unclear.
Coinbase Director Conor Grogan identified these holdings earlier this year, estimating that they were worth around $47 million in Bitcoin across dozens of addresses potentially linked to Ross Ulbricht, the marketplace’s creator.
Grogan resurfaced that January analysis on Tuesday after a pseudonymous operator “0xG00gly” flagged the latest movements.
Individual transfers ranged from micro-amounts of 0.00006 BTC, roughly $5.58, to larger sums exceeding 3.6 BTC, valued at $338,640.
The transactions followed a pattern of consolidation, with funds from multiple legacy addresses flowing into the single destination wallet over several hours.
Several wallets showed connections to mining activity from the 2011 era, when Bitcoin mining remained accessible to individual participants using standard computer equipment.
Ulbricht himself has not publicly commented on the transfers.
He served multiple life sentences without parole for creating Silk Road before receiving a full and unconditional pardon from President Donald Trump in January through executive order.
Source: CBSThe former darknet operator delivered his first public speech following his release in May, emphasizing freedom and decentralization as guiding principles for future technological advancement.
While Silk Road facilitated illegal narcotics sales and other prohibited transactions, the platform played a pivotal role in Bitcoin’s early adoption.
The marketplace processed over 1.5 million transactions worth an estimated $213 million between 2011 and its 2013 shutdown, all conducted using cryptocurrency.
Ulbricht, a physics graduate and early Bitcoin advocate, envisioned the platform as a libertarian experiment in anonymous commerce free of government interference.
However, prosecutors successfully argued that it enabled widespread criminal activity.
Government Bitcoin Holdings Face Competing Policy Directions
The wallet activity emerges amid ongoing debates over how authorities should handle seized digital assets.
The Department of Justice received approval in December to sell 69,370 Bitcoin, worth $6.5 billion, confiscated from Silk Road, following a federal judge’s ruling that ended a contentious ownership battle with Battle Born Investments.
That company claimed ownership through a bankruptcy estate tied to Raymond Ngan, allegedly the mysterious “Individual X” accused of stealing crypto from Silk Road.
Battle Born lost at every judicial level, including the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case.
The company’s attorney criticized what he called “the DOJ’s abuse of the Civil Asset Forfeiture process” and accused officials of “procedural trickery” throughout the litigation.
The approved sale represents one of the largest government cryptocurrency liquidations in history.
Officials justified the decision, citing Bitcoin’s price volatility, though they typically conduct such sales in smaller batches to minimize market disruption.
The decision came despite Trump’s campaign promise to establish a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” rather than liquidating government-held cryptocurrency.
The proposed reserve would mirror the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, retaining all seized digital assets to manage economic risks.
Similar dormant wallet movements have triggered security concerns before.
In July, another $8.6 billion in Bitcoin from wallets inactive since 2011 suddenly consolidated, prompting speculation about potential hacks or compromised private keys.
Some observers linked those holdings to Roger Ver, the early Bitcoin advocate arrested in Spain on tax charges, though no confirmation emerged.
Bitcoin’s price has remained relatively stable despite these large-scale transfers. The cryptocurrency traded near $92,500 on Wednesday, up 2.5% as traders awaited the Federal Reserve’s final rate decision of the year.
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