US Government. Holds More Bitcoin Than MicroStrategy, Big Sale in 2 Months
MicroStrategy is undoubtedly the largest institutional player with the largest crypto holdings currently in the market. But the US government holds an even larger stash of Bitcoin, seized through notorious means. Last month, the US government seized a total of 70,000 Bitcoins from the Silk Road.
US Government Bitcoin Assets
The recent rise in Bitcoin price has proven to be a boon for the US government, which now holds a significant amount of the cryptocurrency. Latest figures show Federal authorities’ Bitcoin holdings have risen to at least $8.3 billion; This marks a significant increase from the $5 billion reported less than three months ago.
This increase in Bitcoin assets is attributed to actions taken by authorities between November 2020 and 2022. During this period, three separate actions resulted in the disclosure and seizure of 207,189 Bitcoins (BTC). These bitcoins have been linked to several cases, including those involving the infamous dark web market Silk Road, hacker Jimmy Zhong, and the hackers involved in the breach of the bitfinex crypto exchange. On the contrary, MicroStrategy holds 189,150 BTC purchased for approximately $5.9 billion and is working on measures to add more.
To date, less than 5% of seized bitcoins have been sold. In February last year, authorities liquidated 9,861 BTC, previously owned by Silk Road, on the Coinbase platform. The sale generated $215 million in revenue at an average price of $21,800 per bitcoin; which is roughly half the current market price.
US lawyers announced their intention to sell the remaining bitcoins from Silk Road, worth a total of 41,491 BTC, worth $ 1 billion at that time and $ 1.8 billion in today’s market. According to Blockworks, the plan was to make these sales in four batches in the next calendar year, with two months remaining before the end of that period. Therefore, the market awaits further developments regarding the government’s Bitcoin holdings and potential sales.
BTC Sales by US Government
The United States Department of Justice potentially completed a batch of Bitcoin sales, sending 8,200 BTC (then worth $252 million, now $350 million) to Coinbase in July of the previous year. However, confirmation of actual transactions arising from this transaction has not yet been confirmed.
Courtesy: BlockWorks
If these transactions were considered sales, the US government would have earned $640 million in revenue by seizing and selling Bitcoin over the last decade. It is noteworthy that the BTC price increased 70 times during this period. If US authorities had chosen to retain all seized BTC rather than sell them, their current amount would now be around 400,000 BTC, equivalent to $17.4 billion, and the existing cache would almost double.
The market is anticipating the possibility of more Silk Road Bitcoins being liquidated by the US government in the coming months. However, there is currently no official timeline for the sale of the Bitcoin seized from Bitfinex hackers Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan. Market participants will closely monitor developments regarding these potential sales in the dynamic cryptocurrency environment.
The US has the world’s largest government stash of bitcoin, potentially surpassing El Salvador, Ukraine, Bhutan, Venezuela and Finland. China, which seized 195,000 BTC ($8.4 billion) in 2020, can compete with the USA if it does not sell what it has early.
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Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and has a good ability to understand financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draws his attention to the emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is in a constant learning process and motivates himself by sharing the knowledge he has acquired. In her spare time, she reads thriller novels and sometimes explores her culinary skills.
The content presented may contain the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market conditions. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. Neither the author nor the publication accepts any liability for your personal financial loss.
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