Trump said he granted the full pardon in honor of Ulbricht's mother "and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly."

President Donald Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the drug marketplace Silk Road who is revered by many cryptocurrency enthusiasts and libertarians. “I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbright to let her know,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, misspelling Ulbricht’s name.

Law enforcement said Ulbricht created the “most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace” on the internet.

On his second day back in office, President Donald Trump issued a full pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of dark-web marketplace Silk Road. Trump had pledged to free Ulbricht as part of a raft of promises made to the cryptocurrency community while on the campaign trail.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for running an underground online marketplace where drug dealers and others conducted more than $200 million in illicit trade using bitcoin.

Social media slams Donald Trump for giving Silk Road operator and notorious drug dealer Ross Ulbricht an unconditional pardon.

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 did not pardon or commute the prison sentence of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, despite his promise on the campaign trail to commute his sentence on "day one."

The Libertarian Party is urging President Donald Trump to follow through immediately on his campaign promise to commute the life sentence of “Silk Road” website creator Ross Ulbricht on the first day of his presidency.

Elon Musk and two prominent libertarians have said Donald Trump's team has confirmed Ross Ulbricht will be freed as early as this week, seemingly affecting Bitcoin's price positively.