Dom Wallet adds Silk Road exhibit exploring Bitcoin, crime and state power

Dom Wallet has added a new exhibit to its Ruins wing examining the history of Silk Road and its wider impact on Bitcoin, law enforcement and the ownership of seized cryptocurrency.

The exhibit, titled “Silk Road: the outlaw money and the state that kept it”, follows the story from the creation of the online marketplace and its use of Bitcoin through to the arrest of its founder, the seizure of cryptocurrency and the later pardon of its founder.

Silk Road operated as a darknet marketplace and became closely associated with Bitcoin because the cryptocurrency was used to facilitate transactions on the platform. The US authorities shut down the marketplace in 2013 and arrested its founder, Ross Ulbricht. He was later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

The case became an important part of Bitcoin’s early history, with the marketplace demonstrating how cryptocurrency could be used to move value outside traditional financial systems. It also highlighted the ability of authorities to investigate blockchain transactions and seize cryptocurrency linked to criminal activity.

Ulbricht’s case returned to public attention in January 2025, when US President Donald Trump granted him a full and unconditional pardon. Trump had pledged to pardon Ulbricht during his 2024 presidential campaign.

The treatment of the bitcoin seized from Silk Road has since added another dimension to the story. US authorities have taken control of large amounts of cryptocurrency through criminal asset seizures, with the government becoming one of the world’s largest holders of bitcoin.

The exhibit presents these developments without taking a position on who should ultimately be considered the rightful owner of the seized assets. Instead, it places the competing questions around property, criminal proceeds, government seizure and cryptocurrency ownership alongside one another.

Its central question is deliberately open-ended: after the marketplace’s founder was pardoned and bitcoin seized from the operation became government property, how should those assets be understood?

The Silk Road exhibit is the latest addition to DOM Wallet’s Ruins wing and is described as its first exhibit to connect historical events directly with developments continuing into the present.