The US government has seized a large amount of Bitcoin in the past from the Silk Road and Bitfinex hacking cases, currently holding Bitcoin worth $14.9 billion, making it the fifth-largest Bitcoin holder in the world. Ki Young Ju, the CEO of CryptoQuant, pointed out that the unrealized profit of the US government’s Bitcoin holdings is as high as 2.4 times.
Bitcoin Holdings Realized Profit 2.4 Times Higher
The value of Bitcoin holdings is $14.9 billion
The Source of Bitcoin Holdings by the US Government
Between 2020 and 2022, the US government has seized a large amount of Bitcoin from the Silk Road, the largest black market on the dark web, and the Bitfinex hacking case, making it one of the largest Bitcoin holders in the world.
With Bitcoin fluctuating around $70,000, Ki Young Ju, the CEO of CryptoQuant, pointed out:
In addition, according to data from the cryptocurrency intelligence platform Arkham, the US government holds 215,245 Bitcoins, with a total value of $14.9 billion, making it the fifth-largest Bitcoin whale in the world, second only to Coinbase, Binance, Grayscale, and Fidelity.
Apart from Bitcoin, the US government also holds 50,147 Ether, 10.14 million USDC, 5.36 million DAI, and 2.27 million USDT, with a total value of over $15.1 billion.
The Source of Bitcoin Holdings by the US Government
Where does the US government’s massive amount of Bitcoin come from? The specific sources are as follows:
Seized from the Silk Road in November 2020 – 69,369 BTC
Seized from the Bitfinex hacking case in January 2022 – 94,643 BTC
Seized from the Silk Road hacker James Zhong in March 2022 – 51,326 BTC, of which the US government still holds 41.5K BTC
Currently, these BTC are mainly stored in encrypted, password-protected offline cold wallets controlled by the US Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, or other institutions.
For a long time, how the US government handles these seized Bitcoins has always been a topic of concern in the market, as any sale could affect the price. In recent years, the US government’s actions to sell Bitcoin include selling 9,861 BTC on Coinbase in February last year and announcing the sale of 2,858 BTC at the end of January this year. However, according to CryptoQuant, the US government did not sell any Bitcoin at the end of January this year. In February this year, the US government transferred 15,085 BTC seized in the Bitfinex hacking case, possibly in preparation for an auction.
Previously, the US Marshals Service stated that they would sell the encrypted assets in batches rather than all at once to minimize adverse effects on the market. Jarod Koopman, the director of the Cyber Crimes Unit at the Internal Revenue Service, has also stated:
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