The Silk Road founder could be one of the world's richest people if he gets his bitcoin back from the U.S government.

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

On Wednesday, the price of bitcoin jumped to more than $104,000, following Donald Trump’s announcement of a presidential pardon for Silk Road and bitcoin-libertarian folk hero Ross Ulbricht. The digital asset community also eagerly anticipated a flood of crypto executive orders that would overturn years of perceived regulatory slights.

Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 on charges related to his website, where users could buy and sell drugs and other illegal goods with bitcoin.

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 .)

The pardon is a big deal for cryptocurrency enthusiasts and libertarians, who have been pushing for Ulbricht’s sentence to be absolved for years.

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.

President Donald Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road marketplace, delivering on a campaign promise he made to court the cryptocurrency community and libertarian voters.

Kraken donated $111,111 in Bitcoin to Ross Ulbricht to help him get on with life after spending 11 years in prison, but a Coinbase executive just revealed that there are digital wallets linked to the Silk Road founder with some $47 million in collective crypto holdings.

Donald Trump pardoned the creator of the world’s first dark-web drug market, who is now a libertarian cause célèbre in some parts of the crypto community.

Where Economists Think the Trump Economy Is Headed By Vicky Ge Huang WSJ's latest survey shows that forecasters expect higher inflation than they did in October-but also higher GDP growth. Also, a sluggish economy and President Trump's tariff threats prompt Beijing to tell big investor to buy more stocks.