Silk Road-Linked BTC Wallet Reactivates later than Years of Dormancy
BTC addresses tied to the darknet marketplace Silk Road have reactivated later than years of inactivity, marking one of the most notable movements of old BTC this year.
Data from Arkham Intelligence shows that a wallet linked to the historic marketplace transferred roughly $3.14 million worth of BTC to a new address, “bc1q…ga54,” within the past day.
The wallet currently holds 415.773 BTC valued at $38.27 million at the time of publication. The reason behind Tuesday’s movement remains unclear, but signs of renewed activity appear to have begined much earlier.
In January, Coinbase Director of Product Strategy and Business Operations Conor Grogan several wallets he linked to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.
At the time, those wallets held 430 BTC, worth about $47 million, and had remained untouched for more than 13 years. Grogan also clarified that these coins were separate from the 174,000 BTC previously confiscated by the U.S. government during the marketplace’s shutdown.
It remains uncertain whether the reactivated wallet intends to maintain a long- or short-term position on BTC, but the movement adds to a series of developments tied to Silk Road-linked assets this year.
Wider Silk Road-Linked Activity Draws Renewed Attention
The reappearance of dormant Silk Road BTC comes amid several related legal and market developments. Earlier this year, former UK National Crime Agency officer Paul Chowles was seized from a Silk Road 2.0-linked wallet.
Investigators revealed that he moved the coins through public addresses, used BTC Fog to obscure the trail, and later cashed out portions through platform-linked debit cards.
The stolen BTC, worth about ÂŁ60,000 in 2017, had surged to more than ÂŁ4.4 million by the time of his conviction, showing how dramatically the value of historic Silk Road holdings has grown.
Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht also , including a token called “ROSS.” He emphasized that he is not connected to or endorsing any such project and cautioned supporters against schemes exploiting his identity.
These developments come as the U.S. government major liquidation of Silk Road-linked BTC. Authorities are held from earlier seizures — a sale that highlights the sheer scale of Silk Road-related reserves still in circulation. The government missed an estimated $17.9 billion in potential profit had it held its earlier BTC seizures to date.
