Do you think, Ulbricht can easily get back his coins if he is still running Silk Road right now?
I mean if he will be released right now, and start from the scratch again, how many years will it take to reach the amount of the coins he lost?
Is the present surge because of this?
I would say probably not. I would say that the present surge is likey due to the WSJ article discussing the potential for bitcoin (which happens to be on the front page).
Generally speaking the price of bitcoin tends to fall ahead of these auctions because of the fact that additional supply will soon enter into the market that was not previously there