Donald Trump wants to pardon Silk Road's Ross Ulbricht

In the US election campaign, Donald Trump is making increasing concessions for the crypto sector. In addition to relaxed regulations, the Republican wants to pardon Ross Ulbricht.

In the election campaign to become the 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump is increasingly relying on the voices of the cryptocurrency community. In a speech on May 25, the former president declared his intention to "putting an end to Joe Biden's crusade against crypto" and wants to make sure the industry stays in his home country. In addition, Trump wants to ensure the self-preservation of cryptocurrency and is against a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The promises continue: "If you vote for me, I will convert Ross Ulbricht's sentence to time served on the first day. He has already served eleven years, we will bring him home."

Ross Ulbricht is currently serving a double life sentence for operating the black market Silk Road, where Bitcoin was the means of payment. Moreover, Trump has recently come out in favor of the adoption of Bitcoin and other crypto in the US. Thus, as the Republican candidate in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, Trump seems to be strategically positioning himself as "pro-crypto".

Trump has been skeptical of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies during his tenure. However, the businessman is now accepting donations in Bitcoin for his election campaign. Whether this turnaround has political or financial motivations remains gambling.

This is in contrast to his Democratic opponent Joe Biden. Under the incumbent president, Democrats have repeatedly launched attacks on the crypto sector. According to Statista, the sitting U.S. president is 1.1 percentage points behind former President Donald Trump in U.S. polls. In national polls, the latter gets an average of 46.7 percent of respondents, while Joe Biden gets about 45.6 percent of the vote.