The move fulfilled a long-sought dream of the overlapping libertarian and crypto communities, who Trump courted on the campaign trail last year. "I just called the mother of Ross

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts welcomed President Trump’s pardoning of Ross Ulbricht, who had been serving a life sentence without parole for running underground drug bazaar Silk Ro

On Wednesday, the price of bitcoin jumped to more than $104,000, following Donald Trump’s announcement of a presidential pardon for Silk Road and bitcoin-libertarian folk hero Ross Ulbricht. The digital asset community also eagerly anticipated a flood of crypto executive orders that would overturn years of perceived regulatory slights.

Until, of course, in 2013 the Silk Road was shut down by FBI agents and Mr Ulbricht, then 29 years old, was arrested in the science-fiction section of a San Francisco public library. In 2015, after a four-week trial,

Ulbricht, 40, was about 10 years into his life sentence for helming an online black market where drug dealers, money launderers, and traffickers used bitcoins to mask more than $214 million in illicit trades. (Ars thoroughly documented the Silk Road saga here .)

President Trump has followed through on one of his key campaign promises — at least for those in the crypto community — pardoning the sentence of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. "I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement,

On his second day back in office, US president Donald Trump issued a full pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of dark-web marketplace Silk Road.

Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in jail for running an underground online market where drug dealers conducted $US200 million in illicit trade using bitcoin.