Silk Road

Seized by FBI

Active 2011–2013

Operator

Ross Ulbricht (Dread Pirate Roberts)

Closed

October 2, 2013

Seized / Lost

144,000 BTC (~$28M at time)

Volume

$1.2B+ (lifetime)

What Happened

Silk Road operated on Tor from 2011 to 2013 under the pseudonym 'Dread Pirate Roberts' (later identified as Ross Ulbricht). The FBI traced Ulbricht through a CAPTCHA leak in the login page that briefly exposed a clearnet IP. At the time of seizure, the market had processed over $1.2 billion in transactions. Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2015. Silk Road 2.0 launched weeks after the original shutdown by former moderators, only to be seized in Operation Onymous in November 2014.

Key Lessons

Never reuse infrastructure after a takedown
CAPTCHA and login pages can leak clearnet IPs
Operator OPSEC is the single biggest risk

#pioneer #seized #fbi #drugs