What you're pointing out is your misunderstanding of the authors intended use of language (I'm not saying it's grammatically correct, but their intention is obv

What you're pointing out is your misunderstanding of the authors intended use of language (I'm not saying it's grammatically correct, but their intention is obvious.) "a link existed between the creators of Silk Road and Bitcoin" === "a link existed between the creators of Silk Road and the creators of Bitcoin". The "creators of" phrase applies to both subjects (or subject/object, I get those words confused) --- this is a common grammatical construct regardless of my confusion of the words subject and object --- the application of the phrase to both I mean.