Silk Road wallets move bitcoin to unknown address after decade of dormancy

Hundreds of crypto wallets linked to Silk Road that had been dormant for over a decade became active on Tuesday, moving bitcoin into one unidentified address.

Arkham Intelligence data shows that around 312 wallets associated with now-defunct darknet marketplace Silk Road collectively transferred $3.14 million worth of BTC to the address "bc1q…ga54" on Tuesday. 

It is currently unclear why the wallets became active. The Silk Road-linked wallets still hold roughly $41.3 million in BTC as of today, according to Arkham. 

In January, Coinbase Director Conor Grogan said on X that he had identified roughly $47 million worth of BTC in wallets tied to Ross Ulbricht, creator of Silk Road. On Tuesday, Grogan resurfaced that post in a reply to Plasma Foundation's pseudonymous operator "0xG00gly," who flagged the latest Silk Road-linked transfers.

The Block has reached out to Ulbricht for further information.

Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order issuing a full and unconditional pardon for Ulbricht, who been serving multiple life sentences without parole for creating Silk Road. While the darknet marketplace facilitated the sale of narcotics and other illegal goods, it played a significant role in popularizing bitcoin, which was used for transactions on the platform.

In May, Ulbricht delivered his first public speech following the pardon, emphasizing freedom, decentralization and unity as core principles for the next technological leap — one he said could help liberate and empower people around the world.