The US Government Holds Over 214,000 Bitcoin, Fed’s Stash Equates to More Than 1% of BTC’s Supply

United States instrumentality enforcement officials announced connected Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seized “approximately 50,676.17” bitcoin from a Silk Road thief. The latest seizure adds to the cache of bitcoins the U.S. authorities holds contiguous arsenic 3 forfeitures during the past 2 years person led to a stash of astir 214,682 bitcoin worthy $4.22 cardinal utilizing today’s bitcoin speech rates.

After 3 Major Forfeitures, U.S. Law Enforcement Officials Hold More Than 1% of Bitcoin’s Capped Supply

The U.S. authorities has a ample stash of bitcoin aft 3 large confiscations during the past 2 years. The archetypal large seizure revealed was backmost successful November 2020, erstwhile the DOJ detailed it confiscated 69,370.22 BTC which was worthy implicit $1 cardinal astatine the time. Today, the stash seized from a idiosyncratic dubbed “Individual X” is worthy $1.36 billion.

Then connected Feb. 1, 2022, onchain analysts noticed 94,636 BTC consolidate into a azygous address. The coins derived from the 2016 Bitfinex hack and little than a week later, U.S. instrumentality enforcement officials explained that the funds were seized and 2 individuals (Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan) were arrested. The much than 94K BTC seized from Morgan and Lichtenstein is worthy $1.86 cardinal today.

The astir recent seizure from the Silk Road thief is the 3rd large stash the U.S. authorities has confiscated since the Individual X forfeiture. The precocious seized Silk Road bitcoins are worthy $997 cardinal utilizing today’s BTC speech rates. All 3 caches adhd up to a full of 214,682 BTC, which equates to 1.02% of the 21 cardinal capped bitcoin supply. The U.S. authorities holds much bitcoin than Microstrategy’s 130,000 BTC stash and Block.one’s cache of 140,000 BTC.

The lone publically known holder of bitcoin (BTC) with much tokens than the Feds is Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which holds 643,572 BTC today. It’s presently unclear erstwhile the U.S. authorities volition determine to auction the ample cache of BTC it holds, arsenic it hasn’t held immoderate large BTC auctions successful rather immoderate time. The U.S. government, leveraging the General Services Administration (GSA), did auction $377K worthy of BTC and LTC successful June 2021. Furthermore, determination were a fig of tiny government-sponsored BTC auctions anterior to 2021 arsenic well.

Interestingly, the U.S. authorities has had plentifulness of chances to merchantability astatine slightest immoderate of the cache of bitcoins for overmuch much than they are worthy contiguous ($4.22B). For instance, the archetypal large stash discovered successful November 2020 could person easy been sold for $50K to $60K per BTC, and the seized Bitfinex coins could person besides been sold for $30K to $40K per BTC. Historically, the U.S. authorities has sold seized BTC astatine a loss, compared to the values that could person been obtained if they were sold astatine a amended speech rate.

It’s not the archetypal clip the U.S. authorities has been the largest bitcoin holder, arsenic it erstwhile was the biggest backmost erstwhile it held Silk Road bitcoins confiscated during the seizure successful 2013. The forfeited bitcoins were aboriginal sold astatine auction successful 2014 and immoderate of the bitcoins were purchased by investors similar Tim Draper.

What bash you deliberation astir the U.S. government’s ample stash of bitcoin? Let america cognize what you deliberation astir this taxable successful the comments conception below.

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