Former US President Donald Trump has vowed to pardon Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht if he is re-elected in the upcoming November election.
At the Libertarian Party National Convention in Washington on May 25, Mr. Trump said: “If you vote for me, on my first day in office, I will pardon Ross Ulbricht.”
“He has served 11 years, we will bring him home,” he said of the creator of Silk Road – the first modern anonymous marketplace with a payment system built on Bitcoin.
Silk Road was founded in 2011 and is run by Ulbricht from a personal laptop under the username “Dread Pirate Roberts.” On October 1, 2013, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Ulbricht.
Ulbricht was sentenced in a US federal court in 2015 on multiple charges related to Silk Road's operations, to two life sentences plus forty years without the possibility of parole.
Portrait of Ross Ulbricht - the man behind the infamous Silk Road market
Mr. Trump also mentioned his pro-cryptocurrency stance, after changing his stance on digital assets earlier this year.
“I will ensure that the future of cryptocurrency and the future of Bitcoin will be created in America, not abroad,” he said, before promising to protect those who choose to hold crypto assets their tokenization outside of centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.
“I will support self-regulation, for the nation's 50 million crypto holders, I say this to you, with your vote I will push out Elizabeth Warren and her thugs stay away from your Bitcoin,” he added, a stark departure from when he called Bitcoin a scam during his presidency.
Mr. Trump's pro-cryptocurrency stance has attracted public attention, especially when he made a promise to pardon Ulbricht and previously became the first US Presidential candidate to accept cryptocurrency donations. cryptocurrency for re-election campaign.
However, Ulbricht's pardon could be controversial, as Silk Road is known to be a black market where the sale of drugs, weapons and other illegal items takes place.
Some believe Trump is using the issue to attract attention and win votes from the cryptocurrency community.
Regardless of Mr. Trump's motives, his recent statements have shown a notable shift in his views and could impact future U.S. cryptocurrency policy.
