In a moment that captured global headlines, Ross Ulbricht—founder of the Silk Road—was granted a full and unconditional pardon by President Donald J. Trump. The long-fought campaign led by his mother, Lyn Ulbricht, concluded with a phone call from the President himself. It was a story of perseverance, mercy, and justice. Now, with Ross free, Lyn Ulbricht and the liberty movement have turned their focus to another long-persecuted voice for financial freedom: Roger Ver.
Roger Ver, famously dubbed “Bitcoin Jesus,” was among the earliest adopters and evangelists of Bitcoin. He poured millions of dollars into startups that became pillars of the cryptocurrency ecosystem—Blockchain.com, BitPay, Kraken, XRP, and Bitcoin.com. While others laughed off cryptocurrency as a passing trend, Ver traveled the globe to promote it, often giving away Bitcoin to encourage adoption. His vision was simple: empower individuals and shrink the power of the state through financial sovereignty.
Now, Ver faces 109 years in prison. The charges against him relate to the complex U.S. “exit tax” system that targets Americans who renounce citizenship. According to his legal filings, Ver relied on top-tier legal and accounting experts, hired former prosecutors to double-check filings, and proactively sought IRS compliance before any guidance on Bitcoin taxes even existed. He told his legal team explicitly: “I know I’m a target… we have to make sure everything is done perfectly”.
The case against him hinges on theoretical valuations of Bitcoin in 2014, a time when there were no established rules on how to classify or price the cryptocurrency. As the DOJ’s own indictment admits, Ver sought expert valuations that considered the fact that selling all of his Bitcoin in one day (as the exit tax hypothetically requires) would have crashed the market and yielded far less than its spot price. Despite this, the government claims he owed $48 million—an estimate they have yet to clearly define even in court.
During a Fourth of July interview on Michael Malice’s podcast, Lyn Ulbricht and Michael Malice directly addressed Roger Ver’s case. “Roger is the next one [Trump] should pardon,”. “They’re trying to charge him with mail fraud—because he mailed in his tax returns. That’s 20 years per envelope!” Their commentary was not mere hyperbole. Ver is charged with multiple counts of mail fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1341—an archaic law often criticized for overreach.
Lyn didn’t stop at legal technicalities. She drew a sharp line connecting her son’s ordeal to Roger Ver’s, stating that Ver is “the next one I think people—Trump—should be pardoning or commuting”. She expressed disbelief over the charges Ver faces, including multiple counts of mail fraud simply for submitting his tax forms by mail. Lyn pointed out the broader danger of such prosecutions, saying, “It’s really a threat to all of us once again… you mess up too badly on your taxes? There you go”. She also noted that while Ver was one of the only people actively trying to pay taxes on Bitcoin in 2014, tens of thousands of others who never filed received IRS amnesty letters in 2019. “That’s what he said. That’s exactly what he said,” she recalled, describing Ver’s willingness to pay if only the government had told him what he supposedly owed.
Now confined to the island of Mallorca, Spain, Roger Ver awaits a ruling on his extradition. He’s been there since his arrest in 2024 when a U.S. indictment was secretly filed while his legal team was still negotiating in good faith with prosecutors. Lyn Ulbricht’s account of Trump’s sincerity during her own son’s pardon process gives hope to many in the crypto community. “When Trump says he’ll do something, and he believes in it, he does it,” she told Malice.
The “Free Roger Now” movement is gaining traction. Supporters argue that this is a chance for President Trump to stand once again with innovators and those persecuted by bureaucratic overreach. By pardoning Ver, he could send a message to every entrepreneur, coder, and privacy advocate that America will not punish visionaries for being early—or for being right. Much like Ross Ulbricht’s pardon energized Libertarian support ahead of the presidential race, advocates believe that a pardon for Roger Ver could galvanize the same base ahead of the midterms—delivering key votes from a community deeply aligned with values of individual freedom, decentralization, and resistance to government overreach.
