Ross Ulbricht, former operator of the Silk Road dark web marketplace, has transformed personal artifacts from his time in prison into a multimillion-dollar fortune… paid in Bitcoin.
After spending over 11 years behind bars, Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road darknet marketplace, is now a free man following a presidential pardon granted by Donald Trump earlier this year.
To mark this new chapter, a highly successful auction was held on the Bitcoin-only platform Scarce City, showcasing a curated collection of personal artifacts from Ulbricht’s life. The items up for auction ranged from everyday belongings to deeply personal mementos, each bearing a piece of the story that intersects Ulbricht’s journey with the early evolution of cryptocurrency. The collection offered a rare glimpse into both his life before his 2013 arrest and the years he spent in federal prison.
The auction raised over $1.8 million in Bitcoin, drawing intense interest from collectors and crypto enthusiasts. The top item was his final prison ID card, which sold for 11 BTC, over $1.1 million, featuring a photo taken just months before his release. Other items included prison-issued sneakers, a rehab notebook, and oil paintings created while incarcerated, such as Archway, a hopeful piece made with a fellow inmate. Pre-arrest belongings like a backpack, sleeping bag, and djembe drum also fetched bids, offering a glimpse into Ulbricht’s lesser-known past. For many, the auction represented a rare opportunity to own tangible pieces of Bitcoin history.
Ulbricht, now free and building his life after prison, described the sale as a personal step forward. “I’ve left Arizona, the state where I was in prison,” he wrote on the auction page. “It’s time to travel. That means downsizing and turning the page.”
Ulbricht also made his first public appearance since his release at the Bitcoin 2025 conference, where he thanked his supporters, calling on the community to stand together in the fight for freedom and decentralization, while emphasizing the importance of unity.