The $31 million Bitcoin donation that was recently received by infamous Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht has been traced to another darkweb marketplace called AlphaBay by blockchain sleuth Chainalysis, Wired reports.
As reported by U.Today, the mysterious transaction, which was first recorded on May 31, puzzled the cryptocurrency community.
Some assumed that the mysterious donation came from Ulbricht\'s own coins that had been allegedly stashed during his Silk Road days.
AlphaBay, which was launched in late 2014, emerged as the leading dark web marketplace with hundreds of thousands of users before it was eventually shut down in 2017 by law enforcement authorities. The website was accepting various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Monero. It relaunched in 2021 before eventually seizing operations less than two years later.
According to Chainalysis, he extremely generous donation likely came from a major player associated with AlphaBay, but their motive remains unclear.