- Silk Road-tagged wallets sent $3.14 million in Bitcoin across 176 transfers this week.
- The transactions are the most significant Silk Road-linked activity in five years.
- The wallets sent funds to a new address beginning with bc1qn.
Silk Road-linked cryptocurrency activity has resurfaced, drawing attention to long-quiet Bitcoin wallets connected to the darknet marketplace.
The movement comes less than a year after US President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.
While the pardon focused global attention on Ulbricht’s legal case, blockchain analysts are now tracking renewed activity that marks the highest level of transfers in years.
The latest movement, recorded on Tuesday, is raising fresh questions about dormant coin reserves linked to the marketplace and how much Bitcoin remains undiscovered or untouched across older blockchain addresses.
Silk Road wallets show renewed Bitcoin flows
Silk Road-tagged wallets transferred about $3.14 million worth of Bitcoin BTC $92,626, according to Arkham . The activity involved 176 transactions, making it the most significant movement from these addresses in five years.
Earlier this year, the same wallets carried out only three small test transactions, suggesting that substantial activity had been paused.
The transfers this week were sent to an unknown cryptocurrency wallet with the address prefix bc1qn.
The primary Silk Road-associated wallets still hold about $38.4 million in Bitcoin.
The newly created address holds only the transferred $3.14 million.
Pardon puts focus back on historic Silk Road funds
Interest in the wallets has intensified since January, when Trump issued a full pardon to Ulbricht.
Before the pardon, Ulbricht had been serving a double life sentence without parole for creating and operating Silk Road, which allowed anonymous trading of illicit goods using Bitcoin.
The pardon also sparked new activity around the Free Ross campaign .
Supporters have contributed about $270,000 in Bitcoin donations since the announcement, based on on-chain data.
Unseized Bitcoin linked to Ulbricht gains attention
Alongside the renewed transfers, discussions have shifted to older cryptocurrency holdings believed to be connected to Ulbricht but never seized by authorities.
The US government previously confiscated at least $3.36 billion in Bitcoin from Silk Road, marking one of the largest recoveries in the history of digital asset enforcement.
Yet blockchain analysts tracking historical movements have identified additional reserves that remain untouched.
Coinbase exchange director Conor Grogan highlighted that 430 BTC, worth about $47 million, has not moved for more than 13 years.
These tokens are held in wallets thought to be linked to Ulbricht.
Dormant Bitcoin wallets remain a focal point
Another Silk Road-tagged wallet likely controlled by Ulbricht contains about $8.3 million in Bitcoin.
This wallet has seen only three small test transactions over the past 10 months and has otherwise remained inactive for 14 years, according to Arkham.
The transfers observed this week have therefore shifted attention back to dormant Bitcoin reserves that could hold substantial amounts.
Experts monitoring historical blockchain activity note that movements involving older darknet-linked wallets often prompt speculation about ownership, recovery efforts, or changes in operational control.
The recent activity does not clarify why these wallets began moving again or who controls the receiving address.
However, the timing, extended periods of inactivity, and historical significance of the addresses have made the transfers notable within the crypto community.
As blockchain analysis tools improve and more historical data becomes searchable, renewed activity from legacy darknet sources continues to shape conversations about unseized assets and the long-term movement patterns of early Bitcoin holdings.
