Home / Events / The Silk Road shutdown
Oct 1, 2013 The Silk Road shutdown
On October 1, 2013, US authorities shut down Silk Road, a darknet marketplace that accepted Bitcoin, and arrested its operator.
- Date
- Oct 1, 2013
- Event
- Site seized
- Result
- Regulators engage
What happened
Silk Road had used Bitcoin for payments since 2011, which made it both one of the first large uses of the currency and its worst reputation problem. The FBI arrested Ross Ulbricht and seized a large amount of bitcoin held on the site.
The case put Bitcoin on the front pages and in front of US lawmakers for the first time. A Senate hearing on virtual currencies followed in November 2013, and the price rose through the autumn.
Why it mattered
The shutdown ended Bitcoin’s association with a single marketplace and started the era of regulators paying attention. Read Bitcoin in 2013.
BitcoinYears.com is for sale
A short, memorable domain for Bitcoin news, history, data and media. Serious inquiries welcome.