Silk Road was an online black market and the first modern darknet market, operating as a hidden service on the Tor network from 2011 to 2013.
Launched in February 2011 by American Ross Ulbricht under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts”, Silk Road allowed users to buy and sell products and services anonymously. All transactions were conducted with bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that helped protect user identities. The site was primarily known for its illegal drug marketplace, though it also listed other illegal and legal products. Between February 2011 and July 2013, it facilitated sales totalling more than 9.5 million bitcoins. The FBI shut down the website in October 2013 and arrested Ulbricht. A successor, Silk Road 2.0, appeared the following month but was itself shut down in 2014 during Operation Onymous. Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 on multiple charges related to operating the site and received two life sentences without parole; he was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2025.
