Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, announced on X that it had sent a payment to the newly liberated Ross Ulbricht to help the Silk Road founder get back on his feet.

The exchange transferred $111,111 in Bitcoin (BTC) and $102,366 to freeross.org, Ulbricht’s official website that allows users to support the inventor of the darknet marketplace.

According to Mempool’s Bitcoin blockchain explorer, 93 donations have already been made through the page as of this writing, totaling 2.5 BTC ($261,000).

On his second day in office, U.S. President Donald Trump fulfilled a campaign promise made to libertarians and the crypto community by granting a full pardon to Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road darknet marketplace, had served 12 years in prison following his October 2013 arrest. He was sentenced to double life imprisonment without parole plus 40 years—a punishment widely criticized as excessive for nonviolent crimes.

President Trump announced the pardon on his social media platform, Truth Social, describing Ulbricht’s sentence as “ridiculous” and expressing his satisfaction in signing the full and unconditional pardon.

Meanwhile, Conor Grogan, an executive at Coinbase, highlighted that Bitcoin wallets linked to Ulbricht, which were not seized by the U.S. government, held approximately $47 million in BTC as of January 22. These holdings considered mere “dust” at the time of Ulbricht’s arrest, have grown significantly in value following multiple crypto market cycles. This development coincided with a major donation by Kraken, adding further interest to the case.

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