Ross Ulbricht’s ROSS Token Faces 90% Crash After $12 Million Trading Mistake
Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the infamous Silk Road marketplace, lost $12 million from crypto wallets tied to his name after making a critical mistake while trading a fan-made memecoin called ROSS. According to blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, the loss occurred due to a liquidity error on the decentralized exchange (DEX) Raydium.
How the Loss Happened: Liquidity Pool Mistakes
The incident unfolded when Ulbricht, or a user controlling his wallets, attempted to add liquidity to the ROSS token on Raydium. The fan-created token, launched following Ulbricht’s release from prison, suffered a massive price drop after a liquidity pool was initialized incorrectly. Arkham Intelligence explained that the pool was initialized at the wrong price, leading to an immediate loss of $1.5 million worth of ROSS tokens—around 5% of the total supply.
“Because he initialized the liquidity pool at the wrong price, $1.5M of the token (5% supply) was instantly taken by a MEV Bot, then sold into the existing pool,” Arkham said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on January 30. MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) bots are automated trading programs that exploit profitable opportunities by scanning blockchain data and executing trades at lightning speed. In this case, the bot bought the mispriced tokens, immediately selling them for a profit.
Second Mistake Leads to Another Loss
After the first error, the same wallet made a similar mistake, losing another $10.5 million, or about 35% of the token’s total supply. According to Arkham, Ulbricht attempted to add single-sided liquidity to sell off the coins passively but accidentally created a liquidity pool with Raydium’s Constant-Product Market Maker (CPMM), rather than the intended Concentrated Liquidity Market Maker (CLMM).
As a result, the MEV bot once again took advantage of the pricing mistake, selling off the tokens for over $600,000. The value of ROSS plummeted by 90% following this bot activity.
ROSS Token Price and Future Outlook
As of now, ROSS is trading at approximately 1 cent, though it has surged by 700% in the past 24 hours, according to DEX Screener data. Despite the massive loss, Arkham reports that the wallets still hold around 10% of the total ROSS supply, valued at roughly $200,000.
Ross Ulbricht’s Legacy and Legal Status
The wallets tied to Ulbricht are listed for donations on FreeRoss.org, a campaign run by his family to secure his release from prison. Ulbricht, who created the Silk Road marketplace for illegal goods, was sentenced to life in prison in 2015. However, US President Donald Trump granted him a pardon on January 22, 2025, fulfilling one of his crypto-related campaign promises.
Despite the setbacks, Ulbricht’s wallets still hold a significant portion of the ROSS token, which continues to attract attention in the crypto space.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Cryptocurrencies and stocks, particularly in micro-cap companies, are subject to significant volatility and risk. Please conduct thorough research before making any investment decisions.
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