The U.S. prosecutors announced that Rui-Siang Lin, the operator of the dark web drug trading platform Incognito Market, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. The case is one of the largest since Silk Road. He pleaded guilty in 2024, involving over $105 million in illegal drug transactions.

January 21 News, despite Bitcoin (BTC) reaching multiple all-time highs in 2025, its global search volume and social media discussion levels have significantly declined. Google Trends data shows that since Trump’s victory in November 2024, Bitcoin search volume experienced a short-term surge, but overall in 2025, it has been on a downward trend, with only sporadic rebounds in the second half of the year. Bitcoin cypherpunk Jameson Lopp cited social media data indicating that the number of posts containing “Bitcoin” in 2025 decreased by 32%, approximately 96 million posts. The Bitcoin X forum reached its discussion peak in January, coinciding with Trump’s inauguration and the pardon of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. In March, the Trump administration established a strategic Bitcoin reserve, further boosting discussion activity. However, over time, aside from the 15th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day and the price breaking through $120,000, online interest continued to weaken.

Hundreds of crypto wallets associated with the "Silk Road" suddenly became active after more than a decade of silence, transferring $3.14 million in Bitcoin to an unknown address. These wallets still hold about $41.3 million in Bitcoin for unknown reasons.