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.

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.

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump issued a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, who ran the dark web marketplace Silk Road under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Ulbricht has been serving a life sentence without parole since 2015, when he was convicted of multiple charges, including the distribution of narcotics.

US President Donald Trump says he has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the dark web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold. Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

Those who convicted Ulbricht were "some of the same lunatics involved in the modern-day weaponization of government against me," Trump wrote Tuesday.

Libertarian activists, who generally oppose criminal drug policies, argued the government overreached in building its case against Ross Ulbricht and the dark web marketplace Silk Road.

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.

President Trump did not pardon or commute the prison sentence of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, despite his promise on the campaign trail to commute his sentence on "day one."

The Libertarian Party is urging President Donald Trump to follow through immediately on his campaign promise to commute the life sentence of “Silk Road” website creator Ross Ulbricht on the first day of his presidency.