Donald Trump is set to return to office on Monday, January 20. In anticipation of the new regime, crypto degens are using Solana meme coins to gamble on who the 47th President of the United States will pardon.
Betters on Polymarket, a crypto prediction market, rank Ross Ulbricht, the founder of online black market Silk Road, as the most likely single person to receive a pardon from Trump at 74%. This comes months after the Republican pledged to pardon Ulbricht once in office. Unsurprisingly, the Silk Road founder obviously welcomed the news.
As such, a spree of Solana meme coins have been created with degens wagering that their price will soar in value when (or if) Trump follows through with his promise.
Solana meme coin Ross Ulbricht (ROSS) was created amid the pardon promise in May, spending most of the year below a $1 million market cap. But in November, when Trump secured victory in the U.S. election, the token went parabolic. It soared more than 3,300% over the following month to a market cap of $15 million. Despite a couple of corrections, the token has continued to climb another 97%, now sitting at a market cap just shy of $30 million.
Ulbricht was sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking, computer hacking, and money laundering. These charges were in relation to founding Silk Road, a darknet marketplace that allowed anything to be sold on it which used Bitcoin (BTC) as the primary form of currency. While mostly known for selling illegal drugs, the site also sold legal products like clothing and even had its own book club.
As such, there is more than one meme coin dedicated to Ulbricht’s freedom.
Free Ross Ulbricht (FREEROSS) has also climbed over 900% to a market cap over $1.5 million since Trump’s victory. Equally, Dead Pirate Roberts (DPR), a Solana meme coin dedicated to Ulbricht’s online pseudonym, has climbed 19,949% to a market cap of $890,000 over the same time frame.
On Thursday, Pump.fun token Rosscoin (ROSSCOIN) launched catapulting to a $35 million market cap in a matter of hours. This token has a website where players can walk around interacting with objects to learn more about Ulbricht’s story. On top of this, it also appears the token has an AI angle, with its X account controlled by an apparent framework that utilizes multiple AI agents.
this looks pretty cool https://t.co/YbTjNrfO3R
some ppl launched an AI coin around Ross, lotta crypto ppl were around during early Silk Road days + Trump has already pledged to pardon him on day 1 https://t.co/il0Z1rOHbV pic.twitter.com/d2upzmWdGC
— Ansem 🐂🀄️ (@blknoiz06) January 16, 2025
Aside from Ulbricht, there aren’t huge amounts of Solana meme coins dedicated to possible Trump pardons. But, there are others.
A Pump.fun token, launched in June, migrated in December as degens speculated that CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden would be pardoned. At the time of writing, Solana meme coin Pardon Snowdon (SNOWDEN) sits at a $700,000 market cap.
On Polymarket, crypto betters believe that Trump is most likely to pardon any of the January 6 protesters within his first 100 days in office, at a 97% chance. In second is Ulbricht, followed by New York mayor Eric Adams, who is facing federal fraud and corruption charges, then WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Snowden.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
