Dormant Silk Road BTC Addresses Move Millions After Years of Inactivity
A cluster of crypto wallets tied to the infamous Silk Road marketplace unexpectedly became active this week, transferring millions in bitcoin after more than ten years of complete dormancy. The sudden movement has raised new questions about long inactive darknet-linked funds and their potential ownership.
Silk Road the darknet platform dismmantled in 2013 was long believed to have left behind inaccessible or forgotten bitcoin wallets. However new blocckchain activity shows that hundreds of these addresses have now reawakened, sending BTC to a destination that remains unidentified.
Blockchain analytics from Arkham Intelligence indicates that 312 Silk Road associated wallets collectively moved approximately $3.14 million in BTC on Tuesday. All transfers were directed to a single address beginning with “bc1q…ga54.
Despite the outgoing transactions, these wallets continue to hold around $41.3 million in bitcoin, suggesting that the recent activity may represent only the beginning of further movement.
The motive behind the reactivation is still unknown and no entity has taken responsibility for the transfers. The event resurfaced earlier findings from January, when an industry executive identified roughly $47 million in BTC linked to Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht.
Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road until his 2013 arrest, received a full presidential pardon earlier this year, ending his multiple life sentences. Following the pardon he delivered his first public address in May, stressing freedo, decentralization and global empowerment as guiding principles for future technological development.
The newly active wallets highlight the enduring footprint of Silk Road on bitcoin’s early history and mark one of the most significant movements of dormant darknet-linked funds in recent years.
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