The organization was founded through a \u201ccommunity takeover\u201d commandeering the SILKROAD memecoin rug-pull.<\/p>\n
SilkRoad Foundation, a community-led takeover of a memecoin that initially rug-pulled its users, has raised roughly $2,850 for the family of Ross Ulbricht, the incarcerated founder of the notorious darknet marketplace, Silk Road.<\/p>\n
According to on-chain\u00a0data<\/a>\u00a0from SolScan, the SilkRoad Foundation\u2019s Solana donation address has attracted 15.5 SOL worth $2,731 and $115 worth of stablecoins since launching 12 days ago.<\/p>\n Among the donations are 5.4 SOL comprising 50% of the minting fees generated from SilkRoad Foundation’s Lost Camel Society NFT collection.<\/p>\n \u201c[On March 27], Ross Ulbricht turned 40 years old, sitting at USP as a prisoner, serving out his 240-year sentence, for creating an e-commerce website,\u201d SilkRoad Foundation\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cThe very next day, Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years for stealing billions of dollars from people, committing fraud on a massive scale, and supporting criminals worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMultiple states have decriminalized most\u2026 of the substances that were being exchanged on the Silk Road,\u201d the organization continued. \u201cThere is no legal, moral, or societal justification for keeping Ross Ulbricht locked in a cage.\u201d<\/p>\n On April 4, SilkRoad Foundation\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0a blog post recapping their journey since its tumultuous beginning just two months ago.<\/p>\n In February, the SILKROAD memecoin launched on Solana, with the developer behind the project pledging to raise donations for Ulbricht\u2019s family through the token. However, the project\u2019s original developer then staged a rug-pull \u201calmost immediately\u201d and ran off with users\u2019 funds.<\/p>\n A group of community members supporting the FreeRoss movement staged a \u201ccommunity take-over\u201d in response to the incident, establishing the SilkRoad Foundation.<\/p>\n \u201cA dedicated group of us who had come in to support the #FreeRoss movement did a \u2018community takeover\u2019, becoming the SilkRoad Foundation,\u201d the post said.<\/p>\n The group was then able to make contact with the\u00a0FreeRoss DAO<\/a>, an organization that advocates for Ross\u2019s release and raises donations for the Ulbricht family, stemming collaboration between the two organizations. For example, SilkRoad Foundation\u2019s Solana-based donation address is featured on FreeRoss DAO\u2019s website.<\/p>\n SilkRoad Foundation also launched the Lost Camel Society NFT collection on March 28. Half of the minting fees are donated to the FreeRoss wallet, with the organization collecting the remaining 50%.<\/p>\n Looking forward SilkRoad Foundation plans to relaunch on Cult DAO\u2019s upcoming Layer 2 network, Modulus. Cult DAO has also invested in SilkRoad Foundation.<\/p>\n Ross Ulbricht was arrested in 2013 and charged with seven charges in 2015. The\u00a0charges<\/a>\u00a0included narcotics distribution, engaging in a criminal enterprise, conspiring to commit computer hacking, conspiring to traffic false identity documents, and conspiring to commit money laundering.<\/p>\n The U.S. government recently made headlines by moving 30,174 BTC Bitcoin associated with Silk Road seizures worth more than\u00a0$2 billion<\/a>\u00a0to a Coinbase Prime account. The movements follow the U.S. government selling 195,091.75 BTC for nearly\u00a0$366.5 million<\/a>\u00a0between 2014 and 2023. At current prices, the Bitcoin previously offloaded by the U.S. government are worth $13.78 billion.<\/p>\n While the U.S. government\u2019s latest Bitcoin movements elicited concern from some onlookers who fear the trove of BTC entering the markets could negatively impact the cryptocurrency markets, other analysts aren\u2019t concerned.<\/p>\n\u201cCommunity takeover\u201d<\/h2>\n
U.S. govt shuffles BTC seized from Silk Road<\/h2>\n