President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening said he issued a full and unconditional pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the dark web Silk Road marketplace for illicit drugs.

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.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for running an underground online marketplace where drug dealers and others conducted over $200 million in illicit trade using bitcoin.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he had granted a pardon to Ross William Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace.

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.

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.

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.

Trump said he had called Ulbricht's mother to let her know that he had granted a full and unconditional pardon to her son.

President Trump announced Tuesday that he signed a full pardon for Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road founder who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of running the dark web marketplace used to deal drugs.

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."