NewsletterWho’s Behind the $31M Bitcoin Transfer to Ross Ulbricht?
Highlights
- Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht received a surprising gift of 300 BTC from an anonymous donor.
- Chainalysis suspects these BTC are from AlphaBay, not hidden Silk Road funds.
- Despite Chainalysis's suspicion, the sender's identity remains unknown.
From spending 10 years in imprisonment for his creation, Silk Road, to allegations of hiding a million dollars worth of funds after Donald Trump’s pardon, Ross Ulbricht is again in the news. Just a few days ago, Ulbricht received $31M worth of BTC from an anonymous sender, many alleging that he has hidden Silk Road funds. However, recent reports reveal the potential person behind these donations. Let’s discuss.
Ross Ulbricht Received $31M Bitcoin from AlphaBay
On May 31, days after the Bitcoin 2025 Conference, Ross Ulbricht received a 300 BTC donation from an anonymous source. Soon, rumors and theories began circulating in the market, suspecting that the Silk Road founder had received his hidden funds or that someone was rewarding him for his contributions. However, Chainalysis suspects that these are from AlphaBay, a large dark web market.
“People donate when they’re deeply inspired by someone and/or grateful and/or have some sort of remorse for the situation. The survivor’s guilt is wild,” says Taylor Monahan( MetaMask security researcher).
AlphaBay was 10x larger than Silk Road and was active from 2014 to 2017. At that time, it was handling nearly $2 million daily in sales from drugs and stolen data. This donation to Ulbricht is perhaps from a large vendor from AlphaBay who had these tokens before the platform shut down.
The Director of Investigation at Chainalysis claims they have a strong belief and reasonable ground behind these claims.
We have reasonable grounds to suspect that these funds originated in AlphaBay.
Ross Ulbricht News: Crypto Analyst ZachXBT Also Clears His Name
Amid all this chaos around the 300 BTC gift, crypto analyst ZachtXBT also disclosed his findings. He revealed that although the money is a legitimate donation (not Ross Ulbricht’s hidden money), the funds are not legitimate.
The money was a ‘legitimate donation, but not legitimate funds.’
He added that these BTC, worth $31M at the current Bitcoin price, went through multiple mixers, split, and deposited on a centralized exchange to avoid detection. Despite all these revelations, the name and the identity of the person remain unknown.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Do these 300 Bitcoin belong to Ross Ulbricht?
2. Where did these Bitcoin donations come from?
3. Has the identity of the sender been revealed?
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