The United States Court of Appeals ended the destruction of Silk Road Bitcoin

A US appeals court has issued an order formalizing the forfeiture of 69,370 bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies linked to the now-defunct Dark Web marketplace the Silk Road.

In the year The decision affirming the judgment given as of August 18, 2023, It marks the official end to the 2013 arrest of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and the legal saga known as the “Dreadful Gangster Roberts.”

The Silk Road bitcoins are complete

The ruling, which was handed down in early August, is now set to take effect after the case was appealed by the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The lawsuit filed Wednesday lists Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht as a defendant, along with two other claimants and the U.S. government.

The US government seized control of the cryptocurrency based on the original complaint that an entity called “Individual X” hacked the Silk Road and controlled the currency.

In the year In 2020, the US Department of Justice seized and began the process of disposing of more than $1 billion in hidden funds. A few days before this move, 69,369 Bitcoins were withdrawn from the wallet address, which, as previously reported, marked the first movement of accumulated holdings since 2015.

Meanwhile, the movement of these funds is closely monitored as market participants often speculate on the potential impact of a major US government sale on Bitcoin's price.

The issue of the Silk Road

Ross Ulbricht's Silk Road, which operated from 2011 to 2013, served as a hidden marketplace accessible only through the anonymous Tor network.

He facilitated the illegal trade of drugs, weapons and other contraband using Bitcoin, an emerging cryptocurrency at the time. The platform's cloak of anonymity attracted millions of users but drew the attention of law enforcement, ultimately leading to Ulbricht's arrest and conviction in 2015.

Initially, lower courts sided with the government, but Ulbricht's appeal sparked years of legal wrangling. A recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit settled the matter once and for all. In rejecting Ulbricht's claim, the court upheld the lower court's decision, concluding that BTC's extraordinary rise in price has resulted in the withdrawal of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are now worth more.

Ulbricht's legal team criticized the ruling, saying it violated his property rights and set a precedent that could make it difficult to seize digital assets without proving individual wrongdoing.