Crypto Industry Cheers Trump's Pardon of Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht — WSJ

By Alexander OsipovichCryptocurrency enthusiasts welcomed President Trump's pardoning of Ross Ulbricht, who had been serving a life sentence without parole for running underground drug bazaar Silk Road.Trump said late Tuesday on Truth Social that he had signed "a full and unconditional pardon" for the Silk Road founder. He had pledged to commute Ulbricht's sentence during the election campaign."Thank you @realDonaldTrump for keeping your word. You have our admiration, respect and loyalty," Jesse Powell, co-founder of the Kraken crypto exchange, said in a post on X."Free at last, welcome home Ross!" crypto entrepreneur Jack Mallers said in a video posted on X. "It would have been an affront to any sense of human dignity and morality to watch individuals, corporations, Wall Street and now governments benefit from the open monetary network that is bitcoin while letting one of its earliest pioneers...rot in prison for the rest of his life."Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 on seven criminal charges, including drug trafficking and conspiring to launder money. Using the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts, he ran Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. The site's accepted bitcoin as payment.Prosecutors said that over $200 million of illegal drugs and other illicit goods were bought and sold on the dark-net marketplace, and that at least six individuals around the world overdosed and died of drugs they purchased on Silk Road.Many in the crypto community argued that Ulbricht's sentence was unnecessarily harsh, however, and supported a yearslong campaign for his release.This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).