Until, of course, in 2013 the Silk Road was shut down by FBI agents and Mr Ulbricht, then 29 years old, was arrested in the science-fiction section of a San Francisco public library. In 2015, after a four-week trial,

Ross Ulbricht’s pardon marks a historic event for crypto, but its impact on Bitcoin’s public image is a mixed bag, according to the community.

Ulbricht, 40, had been serving a life sentence on federal drug trafficking charges for setting up the illegal website.