Silk Road Founder Breaks Silence After Being Released from Prison

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was just released from prison after roughly a decade behind bars, has broken his silence.

In a video posted on social media early on Friday, Ulbricht said that he was grateful to have his life back. 

"I am so, so grateful to have my life back, to have my future back, to have this second chance," Ulricht said.

The Silk Road founder has added that it was "an important moment" for him and the entire family, as well as everybody who has been working for years to free him. 

The pardon was celebrated among libertarian Bitcoin advocates as well as some prominent industry leaders such as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, but it has been met with a backlash as well.

Following Ulbricht's release, some community members started speculating about whether or not Ulbricht still had some Bitcoin holdings left.  

Even though the U.S. government has confiscated roughly 174,000 Bitcoin from the Silk Road founder (both directly and indirectly), it  turned out that a slew of dust wallets associated with Ulbricht still contained roughly $47 million worth of Bitcoin. However, it is likely that these wallets are inaccessible.  

Kraken has also made a sizeable $111,000 Bitcoin donation to Ulbricht following his release. 

"This is an important moment for everybody, everywhere, who loves freedom and who cares about second chances," Ulbricht said in his statement.