Update (Sept. 12 at 4:38 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from Charlie Shrem.

Bitcoin Foundation co-founder and former BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem is auctioning off items connected to his guilty plea over charges involving the darknet marketplace Silk Road.

In a Thursday notice, a spokesperson for Shrem said he would be opening up 12 items related to his time in prison and early Bitcoin (BTC) paraphernalia on the Scarce City marketplace. Among the items were a journal from his time in prison from 2014 to 2015, a BTC ring and the first issue of Bitcoin Magazine from May 2012. 

“These things aren’t just mine, they are the scars and the sparks of the early Bitcoin days and its first fire,” said Shrem.

Issue No. 1 of Bitcoin Magazine for auction. Source: Scarce City

Shrem was arrested in January 2014 for “engaging in a scheme to sell over $1 million in Bitcoins” to Silk Road users.

US authorities shut down the marketplace in October 2013 following the arrest of its creator, Ross Ulbricht. Shrem pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison, but was given early release in September 2015.

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Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for his role with Silk Road, was pardoned by US President Donald Trump in January. He also used Scarce City to auction off items related to his arrest and imprisonment, fetching $1.8 million altogether.

“I’ve always struggled with financial independence,” Schrem told Cointelegraph in response to the auction. “When I went into prison, I had a huge amount of debt and relied on love and kindness from so many people to support myself.”

Issues related to Silk Road keep popping back up

Even years after the darknet marketplace was shut down, individuals continue to face criminal charges related to money laundering or fraud due to their connection to illicit funds.

In July, UK authorities sentenced a former National Crime Agency officer to more than five years in prison for taking 50 BTC seized from the co-founder of Silk Road 2.0, the successor of the infamous marketplace.

The US government seized more than 50,000 BTC connected to Silk Road in 2021 from James Zhong, an individual convicted of wire fraud and hid some of the crypto “on a single-board computer that was submerged under blankets in a popcorn tin.”

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