Dormant Silk Road Wallets Spring to Life, Moving Millions in Bitcoin

• More than 300 long-silent crypto wallets linked to the notorious Silk Road marketplace suddenly activated Tuesday.
• The wallets moved over US$3 million in bitcoin to a single unknown address. The reason for the unexpected movement remains unclear.
• The address still holds roughly US$41 million in BTC untouched as observers revisit earlier findings that tie these wallets to Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht.

More than 300 long-dormant Bitcoin wallets linked to Silk Road suddenly have now moved their funds after a decade of inactivity.

Data from Arkham shows 312 wallets sent around US$3.14 million (about AU$4.8 million) in BTC to a single unknown address. These wallets still hold roughly US$41.3 million (about AU$63.2 million) in Bitcoin. 

No one knows yet who controls the destination address or why the coins were moved. However, earlier this year, Coinbase’s Conor Grogan had already identified about US$47 million (about AU$71.9 million) in BTC tied to Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road’s creator. He resurfaced that analysis after the new movements were flagged on X.

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Whales Waking Up

Silk Road was a darknet market that helped popularise Bitcoin as a payment method. Its founder Ulbricht had been serving multiple life sentences until Donald Trump granted him a full pardon earlier this year. Since then, Ulbricht has re-emerged publicly, but there is no confirmed link in the text between him and these specific wallet moves.

We’ve seen a handful of crypto whales waking up after many years of being inactive. Most of them have started selling their BTC after the coin peaked at around US$126K (AU$190K). The gradual (and then sudden) sell-off pushed BTC below US$90K (AU$135.7K) on multiple occasions.

Others take a different path. One example is an Ethereum whale that woke up and, instead of selling, decided to stake over US$120 million worth of its ETH (around AU$180 million). 

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