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Wallets associated with Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht lose $12m in memecoin blunder

Wallets associated with Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht lose $12m in memecoin blunder

DLNewsDLNews2025/01/30 13:21
By:Pedro Solimano, Tim Craig

The error occurred when controllers of wallets associated with Ulbricht tried to sell ROSS tokens on pump.fun.

Wallets associated with freshly-pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht lost $12 million in a memecoin trading mistake.

The error came while trying to sell ROSS — a token created by fans to celebrate his release from prison on January 21 — on Solana-based memecoin trading platform Pump.fun.

Those the wallet accidentally used the wrong settings, causing the tokens to sell at a discount, according to data from blockchain surveillance firm Arkham Intelligence. These wallet addresses are listed for donation on FreeRoss.org, a campaign run by Ulbricht’s family.

Before those behind the wallet could fix the mistake, trading bots pounced, picking up $1.4 million in ROSS. But then made the same mistake — only this time, it was magnitudes more costly. Bots made away with $10.5 million.

ROSS’s market valuation plunged more than 90% to $641,000 from $40 million.

The incident brings a bizarre twist, if the wallets associated with him are actually controlled by him. That one of Bitcoin’s most savvy figures would fall victim to a technical error — after building one of the largest Bitcoin marketplaces — shows how much trading has changed in the past ten years of his absence.

The Free Ross campaign did not immediately respond to DL News’ request for comment.

Trump pardon

Ross Ulbricht founded the Silk Road, a dark web marketplace that predominantly dealt in illicit substances, and used Bitcoin as a medium of exchange.

At the peak of its popularity, it accounted for 20% of all Bitcoin trading volume.

After running the Silk Road for more than two years, authorities arrested Ulbricht — who went by the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts — in a San Francisco library in 2013. His imprisonment has been the focus of a long-running campaign advocating for his release.

Ulbricht was pardoned by Donald Trump on January 21 after spending more than ten years in jail.

His arrest has been subject to a long-running campaign dubbed Free Ross.

In just one day after he was released, a crypto fundraiser topped more than $270,000 in Bitcoin donations for Ulbricht.

Tim Craig contributed to reporting of this story.

Pedro Solimano is a markets correspondent based in Buenos Aires. Got a tip? Email him at psolimano@dlnews.com.

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