The former U.S. President, Donald Trump, recently announced his intention to pardon Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road, should he be re-elected. Silk Road was the first modern darknet market and was a keen adopter of Bitcoin as a payment method. Ulbricht had run the operation from a personal laptop under the alias ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’ until it was seized by the FBI in 2013. Following his conviction in 2015 for various charges related to Silk Road, he was sentenced to two life terms, 40 additional years and no opportunity for parole.
In a marked reversal of his previous stance, Trump, speaking at the Libertarian Party’s National Convention, underlined a pro-cryptocurrency position. He assured his commitment to ensure the advancement of digital assets, particularly Bitcoin, within the U.S rather than be driven overseas. He further pledged to protect the rights of individuals to hold their crypto assets outside centralized crypto exchanges, a phenomenon known as self-custody.
A significant portion of Trump’s remarks were directed towards his presidential adversary, Joe Biden. He accused Biden of intending to stifle the growth of the cryptocurrency industry. On the other hand, he took a more accommodative stance, stating his open-mindedness towards policies encouraging growth in the crypto market. His pro-crypto remarks have set anticipated high hopes for his potential re-election within cryptocurrency circles. This move could signal a shift in the political attitude towards digital currencies in the U.S. regardless of the outcome of the November election.