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By Ryan Mac and Kashmir Hill
Ryan Mac and Kashmir Hill the dismantling of Silk Road 2. 0 and the arrest of Blake Benthall ten years ago.
At a cryptocurrency conference in Austin in May, Blake Emerson Benthall fought to raise money from investors along with many other entrepreneurs, but arguably none of them could boast of their experience as the leader of a multi-billion dollar drug trafficking enterprise.
In the convention’s “Deal Flow Zone,” the 1. 70-foot-tall, clean-shaven Benthall dressed in a gray T-shirt emblazoned with his startup’s logo, turned his computer on the lunch table and began giving his speech to a bespectacled prospect. investor. .
“I’m a long-time entrepreneur,” Benthall clicks on a presentation detailing how he dealt with Silk Road 2. 0, the second version of the famous online bazaar where 1. 7 million anonymous consumers signed up and used Bitcoin to buy methamphetamine and heroin. and other illegal substances. He spoke of his possible arrest through the FBI and the years he spent in punitive service with the federal government.
Today, after serving his sentence and completing his probation, Benthall, 36, is selling a new business: a two-year-old startup, Fathom(x), which aims to supply virtual tracking software to businesses and government agencies. . exchange transactions and legal compliance.
Benthall knows that it is difficult for a former inmate to convince companies to comply with the rules. But in an industry that’s full of peddlers and experts overnight, Benthall says his criminal experience can unmask fraud before it leads to some other scams like FTX, the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange whose founder is in prison.
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