A crypto pockets tied to the defunct darkish net market Alphabay was reportedly behind the donation of $31 million price of Bitcoin to Silk Highway creator Ross Ulbricht, based on blockchain evaluation.
Blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis advised WIRED for a June 5 report that it had tied the 300 Bitcoin (BTC) donated to Ulbrich earlier this month to Alphabay, a predecessor to Silk Highway that operated from 2014 to 2017.
Chainalysis steered that the funds got here from a serious vendor on the platform who would have had entry to such substantial quantities.
“We’ve affordable grounds to suspect that these funds originated in AlphaBay,” Chainalysis director of investigations Phil Larratt mentioned. “Trying on the quantity, that might counsel they got here from somebody who was presumably a vendor on AlphaBay again within the early days.”
Impartial blockchain sleuth ZachXBT confirmed the 300 Bitcoin didn’t come from Silk Highway and famous suspicious patterns in how the donor moved the funds.
They used a number of mixing providers to obscure the transaction path and cashed out different cryptocurrencies in small quantities to keep away from detection, which he steered indicated legal origins.
ZachXBT mentioned on X that the donation seems to come back from a “sketchy centralized mixing service,” known as Jambler, whereas regular privateness fanatics use decentralized mixers comparable to Wasabi and the now-defunct Samourai.
🔥 TODAY: Ross Ulbricht, founding father of the SilkRoad market, obtained 300 $BTC in his donation pockets. pic.twitter.com/51tnFbWmCa
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) June 1, 2025
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The evaluation steered that the cash was a “respectable donation, however not respectable funds,” ZachXBT advised WIRED.
“Utilization of a number of mixers, spreading out CEX [centralized exchange] deposits, and so on, that’s carried out usually if you’re making an attempt to keep away from getting illicit funds frozen,” he mentioned.
Alphabay takedown on BTC hyperlinks
Chainalysis was instrumental within the identification of AlphaBay-linked Bitcoin addresses, which performed a key function within the takedown of the darknet market in an investigation often called “Operation Bayonet” that spanned 2016 and 2017.
Any BTC held since then would have appreciated dramatically, probably over 40-fold, however the id of the donor and their motivation stay unknown.
In January, US President Donald Trump totally pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who had been in jail for 12 years serving a double life sentence plus 40 years for working the Silk Highway.
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