- Ross Ulbricht’s donation address received 300 BTC via the Jambler mixer, sparking speculation it was a self-donation or hidden Silk Road stash, but ZachXBT disputes both claims.
- On-chain data shows the BTC originated from long-dormant addresses.
- The donation coincides with Ulbricht’s Bitcoin-only auction on Scarce City, which has raised US$1.8M so far from prison items and artwork, following his Trump-issued pardon in January 2025.
Silk Road’s Ross Ulbricht recently received 300 Bitcoin, worth more than US$31M (AU$47M), at his public donation address, prompting a lot of speculation over its origin, with many users on X believing it was a self-donation.
The Bitcoin was routed through Jambler, a centralised mixing service rarely used at scale, according to on-chain data reviewed by ZachXBT.
In a June 2 post, he said he identified a “potential demix for the donation”, however, the on-chain sleuth doesn’t believe it is a self-donation, mostly because “people were claiming though it comes from a questionable source due to the flagged address.”
He noted that while privacy-focused users tend to favor decentralised mixers, the addresses tied to the donation were different. One showed activity on exchanges dating back to 2014.
Another, previously flagged by compliance tools, had been dormant since 2019 before moving BTC to Jambler between April and May 2025. Both addresses sent significant volumes to the mixer ahead of the 300 BTC donation.
ZachXBT also pushed back against theories that the coins were part of a hidden Silk Road stash, saying:
Everyone was accusing Ross of a self-donation, so if anything, this proves it was a donation and not his secret stash because there was activity when he was away in prison.
ZachXBTUlbricht’s Auction Goes On
The donation came shortly after Ulbricht began auctioning off personal items on Scarce City, a Bitcoin-only platform. So far, the auction has generated US$1.8M (AU$2.77M). Items include his prison-issued ID cards, a sleeping bag and backpack used before his arrest, and several paintings completed while incarcerated.
Also among the auction items is an oil painting titled “Archway”, completed in 2023 alongside a fellow inmate known as Omega, who taught Ulbricht to paint. The piece sold for 1.01 BTC (over AU$161k).
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Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road until his 2013 arrest, was sentenced to two life terms plus 40 years without parole in 2015. After 11 years behind bars, he was granted a pardon by President Trump on Jan. 21, 2025.
Beyond these public transactions, Ulbricht may still have access to older Bitcoin wallets never touched by law enforcement. Earlier this year, Coinbase director Conor Grogan identified 430 Bitcoin, valued at over US$45M (AU$69.3M), in wallets linked to Ulbricht.
Arkham Intelligence later corroborated Grogan’s findings, tracing 14 addresses tied to Silk Road, one of which still holds more than US$9 million (AU$13.9 million) in Bitcoin.
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