Convicted Silk Road Founder, An Early Bitcoin Adopter, Generates Commotion With NFT Drop

Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the now-defunct dark web marketplace Silk Road, has caused a commotion on Twitter by announcing an auction of his series of non fungible tokens (NFT).

What Happened: A Twitter account operated by a supporter of Ulbricht announced that the auction for the imprisoned early Bitcoin BTC/USD adopter’s collection of NFTs would begin in two days.

 The NFT collection titled “The Ross Ulbricht Genesis Collection” will be auctioned on the SuperRare NFT marketplace from Dec. 2 to Dec. 8. The artwork comes from different stages of Ulbricht’s life – from his early childhood through his time in prison.

Proceeds from the auction would be used to create a fund to support Ulbricht’s efforts to be released from prison.

See Also: How To Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

Why It Matters: Ulbricht is serving a double life sentence for his role in creating the Silk Road marketplace on the dark web that allowed users to purchase almost anything, including illegal substances, with Bitcoin.

The Silk Road website was created in 2011 was eventually shut down by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2013.

Nevertheless, Ulbricht and Silk Road are seen as having helped popularise the use of Bitcoin during the apex cryptocurrency’s early days.

Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk said in February that the punishment handed down to Ulbricht seemed a “bit high.”

Ulbricht’s comments created a commotion on Twitter, with some opposing his decision.

A popular cryptocurrency influencer who goes by the name of CryptoCobain lauded the NFT auction and noted that Ulbricht has done more for Bitcoin than “all of the laser eye cult combined.”

Price Action: Bitcoin is up almost 0.5% during the past 24 hours, trading at $57,149.51 at press time.

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