ZachXBT Flags 300 Bitcoin Donation to Silk Road’s Ross Ulbricht as Suspicious

Highlights:

• Ross Ulbricht received 300 BTC worth $31.4 million from an unknown source on June 1.
• Bitcoin passed through Jambler mixer, raising doubts about its true origin and source.
• Ulbricht’s auction raised $1.3M, but the 300 BTC donation is unrelated to the sale.

On June 1, Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road marketplace, received a single transfer of 300 Bitcoins valued at approximately $31.4 million. This transaction came from the unidentified wallet and was sent to his official donation address, according to the blockchain analytics company Lookonchain. The transaction has triggered widespread speculation in the crypto community.

Update: Few entities regularly use Jambler in size so I found a potential demix for the donation. 1Mp5hH originates from late 2014 exchange activity. 1CNDW has 2019 exchange activity and was previously flagged in compliance tools.

1Mp5hH & 1CNDW were depositing in size to…

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) June 2, 2025

Some Speculate Bitcoins Are Ulbricht’s Old Money

The Bitcoin came from the wallet that used Jambler, a centralized Bitcoin mixing service, to hide the source rather than more widely used decentralized privacy tools like Samourai or Wasabi. Some people think it could be Ulbricht’s old money. But ZachXBT does not agree and said Jambler is not used much for big amounts. Blockchain researcher stated that he might have found where the Bitcoin really came from. He added that it probably is not a self-donation as some claimed. But the money does come from a suspicious source because the address is flagged.

ZachXBT said one address had exchange activity starting in late 2014, and the other was active in 2019 and flagged by compliance tools. Both addresses sent large amounts to Jambler around the same time Ross received 300 BTC. They had been inactive since November 2019 before making deposits to the mixer between April and May 2025.

Ulbricht’s Life and Return After Prison

Ulbricht operated Silk Road, a marketplace that used Bitcoin for transactions, until his arrest in 2013. In 2015, the court sentenced him to two life terms plus 40 years in prison for running Silk Road. He spent 11 years in prison before receiving a pardon from President Donald Trump on January 21. Since then, Ulbricht has returned to public life. 

He spoke at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Nashville and held an auction for his personal items, including artwork and belongings from prison. The auction, held on the Bitcoin-only marketplace Scarce City, aimed to raise funds to help Ulbricht rebuild his life. It raised more than $1.3 million in Bitcoin. The auction included Ulbricht’s sleeping bag and backpack from before he was arrested. It also had prison ID cards and paintings he made in prison. One prison ID card sold for 5.5 BTC, worth over $580,000. The top bid was 11 BTC, about $1.1 million, but the bidder did not pay.

The recent donation came soon after the auction ended, but the 300 BTC transfer was not linked to the sale. This has added to the mystery of where the funds came from.

Besides the large donations Ulbricht has received, he may also control millions in Bitcoin that the U.S. government never took. Authorities seized more than 100K BTC when they shut down Silk Road in 2013. On January 22, Coinbase director Conor Grogan discovered 430 BTC, valued at about $47 million, in several wallets tied to Ulbricht. These wallets had been inactive for more than 13 years, Grogan said.

I found ~430 BTC across dozens of wallets associated with Ross Ulbricht that were not confiscated by the USGovt and have been untouched for 13+ years

Back then these were probably dust wallets, now, collectively, they are worth about $47M.

Welcome back Ross pic.twitter.com/KmCp4xcrI7

— Conor (@jconorgrogan) January 22, 2025