Topic: Bitcoins held by the US government (Read 1114 times)

https://x.com/ArkhamIntel/status/1849537146861859120

"𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: 𝗨𝗦 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 $𝟮𝟬𝗠.

$20M in USDC, USDT, aUSDC and ETH has been suspiciously moved from a USG-linked address 0xc9E6E51C7dA9FF1198fdC5b3369EfeDA9b19C34c to an attacker 0x3486eE700CcaF3E2F9C5eC9730a2e916a4740A9f.

0xc9E received USG seized funds linked to the Bitfinex hackers from 9 separate USG seizure addresses, including 0xE2F699AB099e97Db1CF0b13993c31C7ee42FB2ac, an address named in the court documents relating to the Bitfinex seizure.

The funds were moved to wallet 0x348 which has begun selling the funds to ETH. We believe the attacker has already begun laundering the proceeds through suspicious addresses linked to a money laundering service."

https://x.com/ArkhamIntel/status/1836733514252980564

"ARKHAM GOVERNMENT BITCOIN HOLDINGS LEADERBOARD

1. United States - $12.16B
2. United Kingdom - $3.67B
3. Bhutan - $782.46M
4. El Salvador - $351.75M

Honorable Mention - Germany - ZERO (down from $3.56B)"

https://x.com/SGJohnsson/status/1824285716286751214

"Yes, US Marshal Service (USMS) is almost certainly selling silk road bitcoin. Joey is right (at least in the present). USMS has been sending BTC to a custodial address required by the terms of the servicing agreement that USMS entered into with Coinbase in June. Given the agreement requires USMS assets remain completely segregated, whenever a transfer is ultimately made to CB prime (or other commingled exchange address), you can be sure USMS has already sold or is selling imminently.

Official confirmation will definitively come (at the latest) upon the DOJ's Asset Forfeiture Program FY2024 report in January, if not earlier. I also don't think it's a coincidence this began in earnest following the Trump speech. Sadly also foreseeable based on the DOJ OIG audit report, USMS "cryptocurrency services agreement" RFP and certain court orders. Biden-Harris might choose to pause in this interim period, but I suspect they will not.

Ironic this admin made a CB Prime transfer on the same day Crypto4Harris had its townhall. "

https://x.com/joeykrug/status/1824181749997261216

https://www.theblock.co/post/309588/donald-trump-says-the-us-government-shouldnt-sell-its-cryptocurrency

Donald Trump says the US government shouldn't sell its cryptocurrency
"Trump called crypto a “very modern currency” and likened it to artificial intelligence.
Last week, a wallet labeled as belonging to the U.S. government transferred $2 billion worth of bitcoin to an unidentified wallet."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-12/germany-appears-to-finish-bitcoin-sales-data-tracker-arkham-says
"Germany Appears to Finish Bitcoin Sales, Data Tracker Arkham Says
The German government had received 50,000 Bitcoin in January
Bitcoin’s price has been choppy in recent weeks on worries"

https://x.com/ArkhamIntel/status/1811831807282958723?
" BREAKING: The German Government is now out of Bitcoin.

The German Government just sent 3846.05 BTC ($223.81M) to Flow Traders and 139Po (likely institutional deposit/OTC service).

The German Government has 0 BTC ($0.00M) remaining."

https://x.com/EmberCN/status/1810326381676642803

"Today, 16,038 BTC ($915 million) were transferred from the German government wallet to various crypto exchanges and market makers.

Since June 19, 26,071 BTC ($1.53 billion) have been sold.

Only 23,788 BTC ($1.33 billion) remain in the wallet."

Germany has sold almost half of its bitcoins.

___
Update
Exchanges send $163 million worth of bitcoin back to German government
https://www.theblock.co/post/304085/exchanges-send-163-million-worth-of-bitcoin-back-to-german-government
"After the German government transferred thousands of bitcoin to exchanges and market makers on Monday, nearly 3,000 BTC — worth about $163 million — were sent back later in the day.
Exchanges likely sent Germany back the bitcoin after not succeeding in selling the crypto within a targeted price range.
At one point, the price of bitcoin dropped to about $55,200 on Monday."

___
https://www.econotimes.com/Chinas-190k-Bitcoin-Reserves-Exceed-Germanys-Potential-Sell-Off-Concerns-1681248
China’s 190k Bitcoin Reserves Exceed Germany’s: Potential Sell-Off Concerns
"China, now holding 190k Bitcoin, surpasses Germany in reserves. Market watchers are concerned about potential sell-offs.

China's Seized Bitcoin Holdings

The Chinese government seized 27.24 million EOS coins, 830,000 Ethereum tokens, and 190,00 Bitcoin units last year, according to Sina Finance, a local news outlet.

Owners of these massive cryptocurrency holdings were involved in the PlusToken pyramid scheme. The three con artists behind this Ponzi fraud were Peng Yixuan, Ding Zanqing, and Chen Bo. They stole digital assets from numerous unsuspecting investors.

The criminals behind the hoax solicited 310,000 Bitcoin, 9.17 million Ethereum, and over 51 million EOS from unsuspecting investors both online and offline, promising them interest in exchange for their money.

The fact that the Chinese government confiscated the defendants' earnings and the platform's digital currency is irrelevant. The state treasury is supposed to receive the confiscated assets. What will happen to these massive digital asset holdings is the next big question."

https://decrypt.co/238587/17-8-billion-bitcoin-is-still-sitting-in-these-government-wallets-arkham

"$17.8 Billion Bitcoin Is Still Sitting in These Government Wallets: Arkham
Data from Arkham shows that countries including Germany, the U.S. and the UK hold substantial amounts of Bitcoin.
Data from crypto analytics firm Arkham has revealed that several governments are holding significant amounts of Bitcoin, totaling approximately $17.8 billion at current market prices.

Arkham has highlighted substantial holdings of Bitcoin seized by the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany as a result of criminal cases, while El Salvador has made significant purchases of Bitcoin for its treasury.

United States: $12 billion in Bitcoin reserves
The United States government holds the largest share of Bitcoin, with an estimated $12 billion worth of Bitcoin in its possession.

United Kingdom: $3.3 billion Bitcoin holdings

Germany: $2.2 billion in Bitcoin reserves

El Salvador: $314 Million in Bitcoin Treasury"

https://twitter.com/ArkhamIntel/status/1778741086418059740
"Our team created a dashboard featuring the Governments with the largest crypto holdings.

For each country, you can see their current BTC balance, balance history in USD, and a real-time feed of their most recent transactions.

Some of the largest countries on Arkham are the US, UK and Germany - now all conveniently tracked in one place."

I think it's a matter of context. If we talk about cryptocurrencies in particular, it is wrong to call Bitcoin a token, because it is a coin, but if we talk in general about digital essence, any money is a token. For 1 dollar you can buy a bottle of Pepsicola, so 1 dollar is a digital token of 1 bottle of Pepsicola 

If they dump all those bitcoins on the market, it will take some days for the market to absorb it. News about big on-chain Bitcoin movements can cause panic and fear because people are fearful of possible dump. However with daily trading volume of Bitcoin market, this can be absorbed good enough.

Last 24 hours, trading volume is $29B.
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/

Should we call Bitcoin as a token?

It is a coin, Bitcoin, not a token like many altcoins.

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/04/02/silk-road-bitcoin-worth-2b-moved-by-us-government-on-chain-data/
Silk Road Bitcoin Worth $2B Moved by U.S. Government: On-Chain Data
"A wallet tagged as belonging to the U.S. government moved 30,175 bitcoins on Tuesday.
Some 2,000 of the bitcoin were moved to a wallet identified as being to Coinbase, with the rest to another government-tagged wallet.
A wallet tagged as belonging to the U.S. government moved 30,175 bitcoins late Tuesday morning. With bitcoin's (BTC) current price around the $65,000 level, that would be roughly $2 billion worth of the token.
The last confirmed sale by the government – which in late 2022 seized roughly 50,000 bitcoins related to the Silk Road website – was in March 2023, when it unloaded 9,861 coins for $216 million."

You can see the https://fundlan.com/bitcoin-source-cod/ on the GitHub site (https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin).

Bitcoin mining source code
Bitcoin is mined by a pool of globally distributed computers running the Bitcoin software that verifies transaction records, adds them to the blockchain, and awards Bitcoin units in exchange.

Cryptocurrency mining involves solving complex arithmetic challenges, and the first computer or set of computers to resolve such issues is remunerated in the form of Bitcoins.

The Bitcoin source code has a mining process implemented within it. There is an open-source reference RPC miner written by a Bitcoin developer for advanced users who know Python.

Such a miner will be a very basic form of a CPU bitcoin miner. Mining is, however, very resource-intensive and needs to be supported by powerful hardware for it to be effective.

https://cryptonews.net/news/bitcoin/28718789/
CryptoQuant: US government holds 210k Bitcoins with $14.4b unrealized profit

"The U.S. government’s holdings of 210,392 BTC worth $14.4 billion make the country one of the largest holders of the coin.

The head of CryptoQuant, Ki Young Ju, noted that the U.S. Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, and other departments have not sold a single Bitcoin (BTC) since July 2023. The government’s unrealized profits increased 2.4 times."

https://www.theblock.co/post/279733/us-government-initiates-around-922-million-in-bitcoin-transfers-from-seized-bitfinex-hack-funds

"US government initiates around $922 million in bitcoin transfers from seized Bitfinex hack funds
Arkham Intelligence data showed that two wallets containing the seized funds made multiple transfers to unidentified addresses on Wednesday.

The U.S. government appears to have transferred out about $922 million worth of bitcoin from two crypto wallets that held funds seized from a 2016 Bitfinex hack, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.

One wallet first transferred out 1 bitcoin ($60,200) on Wednesday afternoon EST and subsequently transferred out 2817 bitcoin worth around $172.74 million to unidentified addresses, the data showed."

Maybe it's related to this case
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--5486895

https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/united-states-seized-and-files-forfeiture-action-recover-over-54-million-cryptocurrency
United States Seized and Files Forfeiture Action to Recover over $54 Million of Cryptocurrency Traceable to Narcotics Distribution Scheme
!"“The civil action we are taking today seeks to recover millions of dollars of cryptocurrency, which the defendant allegedly obtained from drug sales. Whether it’s as simple as bags of cash or as sophisticated as cryptocurrency, we will take the steps necessary to seize financial gains defendants obtain from criminal activity.”
U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger "

https://cryptonews.com/news/story-behind-us-governments-5-billion-bitcoin-heres-what-you-need-know.htm
The Story Behind the U.S. Government's $5 Billion in Bitcoin – Here's What You Need to Know
"The U.S. government has become one of the largest holders of Bitcoin (BTC), acquiring approximately 200,000 coins (worth around $5 billion) through seizures related to criminal activities.

The digital assets were seized from cybercriminals and darknet markets and are securely stored offline in encrypted hardware wallets controlled by various federal agencies, including the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)."

"The DEA fell victim to a sophisticated airdrop scam, mistakenly transferring over $55,000 in stablecoins.
A plea to USDT-issuer Tether to freeze the funds was too late, and the money had already gone.
 
The Drug Enforcement Administration, responsible for bringing down the dark web marketplace Silk Road, inadvertently transferred over $55,000 in cryptocurrency to a scammer in a recent airdrop blunder. "
https://www.theblock.co/post/247486/dea-sent-55000-usdt-crypto-scammer

Citizens' deposits are protected by insurance. If an illegal act occurs, the insurance company will compensate for the damage.
If there is another practice, when there was an attempted theft or fraud, that is, when your coins could not be used. In other cases, in many countries it is difficult for an ordinary citizen to return their crypto assets.

It is difficult to return stolen cryptocurrencies of a truth. Whenever there is theft of cryptocurrency or maybe confiscated because of money laundering or other illicit acts, if you begin to trace such coins, you will be surprised how far or untraceable they will be. They might have landed in different exchanges and mixers which will make it real difficult to determine the rightful owner.
Most times, the cases relating to these coins are delayed very much in the law court and from the court order the government will confiscate it.
@Bushdark so not forget that the government is not a church, they are looking for ways to get money from people and cryptocurrency is the new and easy trend to do so.

Pretty interesting, I thought the US once have a refund policy that have stolen funds to be returned to the owners. Although I know how difficult it will be when the fund is mostly from unknowsln sources or foreign regions where it will be difficult to trace.