A crypto pockets tied to the defunct darkish internet market Alphabay was reportedly behind the donation of $31 million value of Bitcoin to Silk Street creator Ross Ulbricht, in response to 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 Street that operated from 2014 to 2017.
Chainalysis recommended that the funds got here from a significant vendor on the platform who would have had entry to such substantial quantities.
“Now we have cheap grounds to suspect that these funds originated in AlphaBay,” Chainalysis director of investigations Phil Larratt stated. “Trying on the quantity, that might recommend they got here from somebody who was presumably a vendor on AlphaBay again within the early days.”
Unbiased blockchain sleuth ZachXBT confirmed the 300 Bitcoin didn’t come from Silk Street 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 recommended indicated felony origins.
ZachXBT stated on X that the donation seems to return from a “sketchy centralized mixing service,” referred to as Jambler, whereas regular privateness fans use decentralized mixers similar 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
Associated: Silk Street founder’s belongings fetch $1.8M in Bitcoin public sale
The evaluation recommended that the cash was a “legit donation, however not legit funds,” ZachXBT advised WIRED.
“Utilization of a number of mixers, spreading out CEX [centralized exchange] deposits, and so forth, that’s executed usually in case you are making an attempt to keep away from getting illicit funds frozen,” he stated.
Alphabay takedown on BTC hyperlinks
Chainalysis was instrumental within the identification of AlphaBay-linked Bitcoin addresses, which performed a key position within the takedown of the darknet market in an investigation often known as “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 absolutely pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who had been in jail for 12 years serving a double life sentence plus 40 years for working the Silk Street.
Journal: Bitcoin $200K ‘apparent’ breakout, GameStop’s first BTC purchase: Hodler’s Digest
