The United States government has grow to be one of many largest Bitcoin (BTC) holders, with over 200,000 BTC value greater than $5 billion regardless of promoting a number of thousand BTC value hundreds of thousands earlier this 12 months.
According to an information evaluation based mostly on public filings, crypto agency 21.co estimated that the U.S. government nonetheless holds 194,188 BTC, estimated to be value $5.3 billion. The agency famous in its evaluation that these are “lower-bound estimations of the U.S. government holdings based on publicly available information.”
The evaluation tracked the Bitcoin motion of the U.S. government wallets related with the three largest BTC seizures since 2020, specifically the Silk Road seizure of 69,369 BTC in November 2020, the Bitfinex Hack seizure of 94,643 BTC in January 2022, and the James Zhong seizure of 51,326 BTC in March 2022.
The government Bitcoin stash is stored primarily offline in encrypted storage units often called {hardware} wallets stored below the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service. The U.S. government made two important seizures in 2022.
Related: US government plans to sell 41K Bitcoin connected to Silk Road
Seized property don’t immediately belong to the government. The U.S. Marshals Service, the principal company charged with promoting seized property, solely receives possession of the seized Bitcoin after a courtroom points a definitive forfeiture judgment.
The U.S. government additionally sells a portion of the seized Bitcoin once in a while by means of an public sale system based mostly on courtroom liquidation orders. The most notable government public sale dates again to 2014, when billionaire Tim Draper bought 30,000 BTC from U.S. government auctions in 2014.
However, in latest years, the U.S. government has turned to crypto exchanges to promote seized Bitcoin over public auctions. One such sale got here in March earlier this 12 months when the government offered 9,118 BTC on Coinbase, as confirmed by means of a public submitting.
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