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In a definitive chapter for the infamous Silk Road online black market, a U.S. Court of Appeals finalized the forfeiture of approximately 69,370 Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Gold (CRYPTO: BTG) Bitcoin SV (CRYPTO: BSV) and Bitcoin Cash (CRYPTO: BCH) valued at more than $3.4 billion.
This ruling, which finalized an Aug. 18, 2023 judgment, stands as the official conclusion to a legal saga that began with the 2013 arrest of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, alias "Dread Pirate Roberts."
Ulbricht's Silk Road, operational from 2011 to 2013, functioned as a hidden marketplace accessible only through the anonymizing Tor network.
It facilitated the illegal sale of drugs, weapons and other contraband using Bitcoin, then a budding cryptocurrency. Millions of users flocked to the platform's veil of anonymity, attracting the attention of law enforcement, culminating in Ulbricht's arrest and conviction in 2015.
Following Ulbricht's life sentence, the fate of the seized Bitcoin, then valued at roughly $3.6 million, became a contentious legal battle.
While the government sought immediate forfeiture, Ulbricht's defense argued the coins couldn't be demonstrably linked to illegal activity and should be returned.
Lower courts initially sided with the government, but Ulbricht appealed, triggering years of legal wrangling.
The recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decisively settled the matter.
Rejecting Ulbricht's claims, the court upheld the lower court's decision, finalizing the forfeiture of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, now significantly more valuable due to Bitcoin's astronomical price surge.
This pivotal development extends beyond the specifics of the case.
It marked a significant victory for law enforcement in their pursuit of criminal activity facilitated by cryptocurrency. The ruling sets a precedent for future cases involving digital assets and solidifies the government's authority to seize illegally obtained cryptocurrencies.
Ulbricht's legal team criticized the forfeiture, arguing it infringed upon his property rights and established a potentially dangerous precedent for the seizure of digital assets without proof of individual wrongdoing.
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