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‘The sky is the limit’ according to the incarcerated Ross Ulbricht
In recent years Bitcoin (BTC) and the wider cryptocurrency scene has become more and more assimilated into the financial mainstream. With this growing respectability, institutional investors have increased their exposure to the world of digital assets and leading exchanges have sought to offer crypto options.
With such interest and more vigilant regulation the “wild west days” of cryptocurrencies are fast receding from memory. However, one of the most prominent figures from this early period has emerged once again to outline his bullish view for Bitcoin long term.
Ross Ulbricht, the radical free-marketeer who founded Silk Road, the world’s first modern darknet black market, at the age of 27, has stated from his prison cell of the BTC price that: “Decades from now, anything below $20,000 will seem cheap.”
Ulbricht, who is currently serving a double life sentence plus 40 years without the possibility of parole for money laundering, computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents and conspiracy to traffic narcotics, added: “As everyone knows, I was one of the first to recognise the potential of Bitcoin.”
To a great extent this is true. Since its launch in 2008/9 Bitcoin has attracted interest as an alternative means of exchange from state-backed fiat currencies and the whims of central bankers. The committed libertarian and Penn State alumnus Ulbricht identified the crypto as the ideal currency for his absolute free market, free from government oversight or intervention.
While this idealistic dream earned Ulbricht a lengthy prison sentence, his belief in the long-term trajectory of Bitcoin has not weakened.
Ulbricht subscribes to the fairly common belief that Bitcoin is in its second stage (or wave), a bear market correction which began after the impulse bull market peak of stage one (or wave one) in late-2017.
Ulbricht stated: “If wave II takes prices down to $1,000 and wave III is as big as wave I, then wave III will drive prices to $333 million. Assuming 21 million Bitcoins, that’s a market cap of $7 quadrillion. That’s more than 10 times the current GDP of all humanity. So the point is – long term –the sky is the limit.”
With his Bitcoin fortune of $28.5m (£22.9m, €26.3m) seized by the FBI in 2013, Ulbricht will not benefit should such a historic surge materialise. In the more immediate term he is focusing on securing clemency, a mitigation of his sentence. A petition to President Donald Trump requesting such an outcome has thus far received more than 285,000 signatures.
