Ross Ulbricht Reflects on Bitcoin’s Rise at BTC 2025
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference in Las Vegas, Ross Ulbricht shared personal reflections on Bitcoin’s incredible price journey—from less than $1 to over $100,000 per coin.
Ulbricht, the founder of the now-defunct Silk Road marketplace, recalled the early days of Bitcoin when the ecosystem was just beginning to form. “When I launched Silk Road, buying a whole Bitcoin would set you back less than a dollar,” he said. “Pocket change. Can you imagine that?”
He added that, at the time, the market infrastructure was minimal. “Back then there was just one exchange,” he said, referencing Bitcoin’s infancy and limited trading options.
Now, more than a decade later, Bitcoin trades above $100,000, has become a key institutional asset, and has been integrated into financial systems globally. Ulbricht’s comments struck a nostalgic note, underscoring how far the asset—and the technology behind it—has come.
Despite his incarceration, Ulbricht remains a symbolic figure in the BTC community, often cited in conversations around internet freedom, decentralization, and the early ideals of crypto.
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coindoo and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
