Ross Ulbricht Memecoins Tag All-Time Highs On Commutation Bets

With inauguration day approaching, the market is preparing for President-elect Donald Trump to commute the sentence of the convicted founder of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht. To bet on the event, traders are buying up the ROSS memecoin, which hit a new all-time high today.

The unofficial Ross Ulbricht coin, ROSS, launched in May, but began to pick up steam in November after the election results as Trump vowed to free Ross, who is serving a life sentence, on day one of his presidency.

ROSS hit an all-time high $32 million market capitalization today, almost 60x from its $550,000 valuation on Nov. 5.

The token is tradable on Solana, and the community running the token has set aside 1% of the supply, currently worth $275,000 to donate to Ulbricht.

Ulbricht is considered a cult hero by the crypto community, as many transactions on the now defunct Silk Road marketplace were transacted through bitcoin.

Silk Road history

While Silk Road was operational, it generated more than $13 million worth of bitcoin in commissions at 2013 value, which the government seized in 2020 when it was worth more than $1 billion. The Bitcoin stash is now worth nearly $7 billion and is in the hands of the Department of Justice, however, as of Dec 30, the DOJ was cleared to sell the 69,000 BTC.

Ownership and transfer of bitcoin through Silk Road onboarded, and changed the lives of many current bitcoin holders, but the movement goes beyond wealth creation, and also tugs at the ideological heartstrings of those who are passionate about the freedom to transact.

Ulbricht charges

Ulbricht received life in prison for drug trafficking, computer hacking, and money laundering in 2015. The crimes that landed Ross in prison for life may not have been carried out by Ulbricht himself, but enabled by Silk Road’s adamant refusal to censor the business done over its online marketplace. Ulbricht’s innocence is a topic that remains hotly debated to this day.

The ROSS memecoin is not the first crypto initiative designed to support Ross Ulbricht’s cause. FreeRossDAO was an initiative launched in 2021 to purchase an NFT of art created by Ross Ulbricht, which ended up winning the NFT auction for nearly 1500 ETH, worth roughly $6 million at the time.

Polymarket bets

Bettors on Polymarket, the largest onchain prediction market, give Ross a 75% chance of being pardoned within Trump’s first 100 days. The Ross Ulbricht bet in particular has commanded nearly $4 million volume, or roughly 55% of the entire presidential pardon section on Polymarket.

While Ross is incarcerated, his wife runs his social media accounts and delivers messages for him. Ulbricht is under the impression that Trump will commute his sentence, and on Dec. 11 he posted, “for my last monthly resolution of 2024, I intend to study every day and to get up to speed as much as I can as I prepare for freedom.”