On Wednesday, the price of bitcoin jumped to more than $104,000, following Donald Trump’s announcement of a presidential pardon for Silk Road and bitcoin-libertarian folk hero Ross Ulbricht. The digital asset community also eagerly anticipated a flood of crypto executive orders that would overturn years of perceived regulatory slights.

Until, of course, in 2013 the Silk Road was shut down by FBI agents and Mr Ulbricht, then 29 years old, was arrested in the science-fiction section of a San Francisco public library. In 2015, after a four-week trial,