Ross Ulbricht received a $31 million bitcoin donation which raised questions about its origin. Initially thought to be his stashed proceeds from running the Silk Road, crypto tracing firm Chainalysis found evidence linking the funds to AlphaBay, a larger dark web market operational from 2014 to 2017. This market is suspected to be the source of the bitcoins, possibly from a large-scale vendor within AlphaBay. Despite inquiries, Ulbricht has not commented on the findings.
Chainalysis says the funds appear to have emerged from AlphaBay around 2016 and 2017. Given the amount of the donation, Chainalysis suggests it might have come from someone who acted as a large-scale seller on the market.
"We have reasonable grounds to suspect that these funds originated in AlphaBay," says Phil Larratt, Chainalysis's director of investigations. This leads to new insights about the source of the bitcoin.
Crypto tracing investigators found that the $31 million donation to Ross Ulbricht likely came from AlphaBay, a long-defunct dark web market, challenging initial assumptions about the donation.
The donation's origin sparked rumors that Ulbricht was sending himself a trove of his Silk Road proceeds, but investigators suggest an alternative source linked to AlphaBay.
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