Coinbase exec ‘identifies’ several Ross Ulbricht-linked wallets holding 430 Bitcoin
SSeveral wallets associated with Ross Ulbricht reportedly hold approximately 430 Bitcoin that were not confiscated by the U.S. government, according to a Coinbase executive.
Conor Grogan, Coinbase’s director of product strategy, claimed in a post on X on Jan. 22 that he identified dozens of wallets tied to the Silk Road founder. These wallets cumulatively hold about 430 Bitcoin (BTC), which have remained untouched for more than 13 years.
“I found ~430 BTC across dozens of wallets associated with Ross Ulbricht that were not confiscated by the USGovt and have been untouched for 13+ years. Back then these were probably dust wallets, now, collectively, they are worth about $47M,” Grogan noted.
Ulbricht left prison on Jan. 21, 2025, following a full and unconditional pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump. Keeping a campaign promise, Trump issued the pardon on his first full day in office after being sworn in on Jan. 20.
The U.S. government had seized 174,000 BTC from Silk Road in 2013. Ulbricht, arrested the same year, was sentenced in 2015 to two life sentences plus 40 years on charges including operating a criminal enterprise, drug distribution, and money laundering. Silk Road had used Bitcoin for transactions on its darknet marketplace.
While authorities shut down Silk Road and seized significant amounts of Bitcoin, wallets holding relatively small amounts at the time appear to have been overlooked. These wallets, now worth millions of dollars due to Bitcoin’s appreciation, remain untouched.
One such wallet holds 88.77 BTC, currently valued at over $9.4 million. Some of these wallets also contain airdropped assets, such as those from the 2017 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard fork.
Despite the substantial value of these wallets today, Grogan speculated that Ulbricht may not have access to the private keys. In response to concerns about publicizing this information, Grogan clarified:
“Not going to share the addresses but all of them are public (cited in trial docs or directly adjacent ) and tracked already by multiple sources.”
