Topic: Bitcoins held by the US government (Read 650 times)

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.

I don't think you understand how this system works. It is very difficult to return stolen cryptocurrencies that have been transferred many times.


https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/08/23/fbi-says-north-korean-hackers-may-try-to-sell-40m-of-bitcoin/
"FBI Says North Korean Hackers May Try to Sell $40M of Bitcoin
The FBI released six wallets linked to North Korean hackers Lazarus Group and APT38.
The North Korea-based Lazarus Group and APT38 were reportedly behind a series of cryptocurrency hacks earlier this year, including the $60 million theft from payment processor Alphapo and the $100 million exploit of Atomic Wallet, the FBI said."

If these coins are confiscated, they will belong to the US government.

All the money that was recoverd from scammers should have been returned to the right owners especially the exchanges where the loses happened. What I know is that all those Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that was autioned were sold to those around the government bodies because they are more cheaper than the actual price. There should be a policy to return lost properties and funds that was taken from scammers or fraudsters to the rightful owners rather than the government holding them and later auctioning them.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) gives notice that the property listed below was seized for federal forfeiture for violation
of federal law. Laws and procedures applicable to the forfeiture process can be found at 19 U.S.C. Sections 1602 - 1619, 18
U.S.C. Section 983, and 28 C.F.R. Parts 8 and 9.
To File a Petition for Remission or Mitigation:
https://www.forfeiture.gov/pdf/FBI/OfficialNotification.pdf
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION
AUGUST 18, 2023


FBI confiscated about $1,700,000 in three months

They could seize them from criminals. Even when there are no criminals, they will create one and seize their assets. Whenever government is selling off properties seize by legislation, I think they do so in batches and in discounted prices. So, bitcoin is selling in a discount price and this should be the best time to sell.

US is not so concerned to hold bitcoin and sell at a higher price. If they need money they will print more I think. But they will like to use the bitcoin at their disposal to manipulate the market in other to resuscitate the dying US dollar

I do not think they picked the wrong time, because halving is coming in 2014 and before that the market will make a dump due to such huge amount of BTC selling and thus will provide a good chance for every investor to enter the market at lower prices. That's why they are making efforts to approve ETFs and that's the only reason they are delaying the ETFs approval.

I was making another post reply but i came to know about this post and op you have shared a good piece of information which directly indicates that we are not going to see any uptrend or bullish cycle many people are talking about in 2024. Because that's not going to happen.

https://twitter.com/spotonchain/status/1679344293402804224
"9,825 $BTC (~$297M) was moved by the US Government from 3 wallets that hold seized Silk Road Bitcoin, around 12 hours ago.

Notably, 8,200 $BTC ($248M) was moved to a new address 361yogPsa, and then distributed to 101 recipients (each received 79.2 $BTC)."


https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/07/12/us-government-moves-300m-worth-of-bitcoin-linked-to-silk-road-on-chain-data/
Silk Road–Linked Bitcoin Worth $300M Moved by U.S. Government: On-Chain Data
The U.S. government previously sold 9,861 bitcoin for $216 million in March.

What kind of victims will get the money stolen from the Silk Road?
To the users and companies of this darknet market that suffered losses as a result of the closure of the Silk Road
The intelligence agencies receive funding from a federal agency, although there were agents in the Silk Road criminal case who wanted to steal bitcoins.
I think such money is credited to the federal budget.

Well, if they were to receive the money that by selling all of it, it would probably go to the funds for these different things.

• Compensation to the victims
• Funding to the different agencies that helped with the seized coins
• General funding for the government

The most important part IMO is the compensation to victims. Affected by those hacks etc. Imagine waiting for so long to get something back or something.

Even tho the source is not 100% accurate but we all know that the US has the bitcoin from silk road and etc and We all know about chipmixer maybe they added a little bit from chipmixer too.

Im curious to why they sell in batches but the best guess is the US need a better price or there is no exchange that have liquidity of cash if they want to sell all of them.

One thing for sure that big red candle stick on daily timeframe is coming.

---

And Lastly what they are gonna do with the cash after they sell all of it

Okay, but who should return the coins that were seized from the organizers of the Silk Road or exchangers who are engaged in illegal money laundering activities according to the US law enforcement agencies?
Cases for the return of funds after theft from the exchange are long, see the story with Mt.Gox.

AFAIK every catch is stored or destroyed before the trial or returned to the party victim because i highlighted the catch of an exchange hacker, there were many victims who were harmed why not return it? cmiiw

the thing about them going to sell all the bitcoins they're catching slowly is also a concern to me, it's definitely looking like FUD, to make the market shake a little.

All money confiscated from criminals in the US will go to the country's budget, and I don't think it's unethical. This is the policy in all countries. For the American budget, this is a small amount, and for the bitcoin market, the sale of 200,000 coins can collapse prices in the market greatly. But if they sell in parts, then this does not seriously affect the prices in the market.

Not necessarily. Remember that the proceeds will go to public funds, so unless the officials responsible for the sale get some sort of commission (or other incentives for maxing up the income) they may simply not care at all about the price.

But yes, they tend to sell in batches. As for James Zhong's stash, they sold the first batch in March and intend to sell another 4 (likely each of around BTC10k) during this calendar year, as reported by the Daily Mail:

selling bitcoin that don't belong to them imo is an unethical act, and what are they going to do with the money from selling the bitcoins....to pay off debts?  to fund the next presidential campaign?  or something else?

if they want to make FUD then the method is completely wrong, the news of the sale of large amounts of Bitcoin will only reduce the sympathy of many people for the US Government, and everyone will think badly of all the catches they managed to get.

If I'm not wrong, even people in the government have different stances toward crypto/BTC in general. I'd not be surprised if they will change their decisions if there is a change in power. We do see many decisions getting revised, I doubt they care about their image since they can just refer to the previous government being "wrong". CMIIW.
They can also use exchanges or taxes to collect more Bitcoins imo, although the amount is probably not that much if you compare it to criminals' BTC.

In any case, this will be just another bump in the road, like a wave that should not affect those of us who invest in Bitcoin in the long term. As I said in a previous comment, I would not be surprised if in the future they realize that they will do well to buy Bitcoin, or even mine it. With a little foresight they would hold these. Let them sell, I will continue to hold mine.

Right, they will not just simply dump it just because the litigation is down, not unless the court really gives them the order to sell it right away. Of course, it's better to sell those to recover some money from the seize Bitcoin, but they will have to find a suitable time to sell to at least get a good amount.

Not sure about the impact though, we don't hear news until the transaction has been done. But there could be some individuals following those addresses and then report it to the public. Whether their intention is bad (create FUD), or just simply wanting to let us know that the Bitcoin seized has been sold already, OTC or some other ways.

The governments often announce their plans to create fear and speculate the situation. They will initially begin to sell some good amount of Bitcoin with an announcement to see if that will affect the price of Bitcoin and create fear in the minds of Holders. And, if they find no fear in the market they will continue selling and announcing.

If on the other hand they somehow see the market crashing they might halt the selling process and wait for the market to recover and then resell the remaining bitcoins in same fashion. That way they will sell their bitcoin without even letting them losing their value.

I know that they might have picked up the wrong time for those plans, but in crypto market no one really knows when times are right? Some people think that right times are the ones when the market is pumping crazily while others think that the right times are the ones when market is dumping. Everyone has different opinions in that regard.

It doesn't seem very smart to me, and not just because of the timing to sell them, but maybe being a member of this forum I am biased. For me in the near future having Bitcoins in reserve is going to be as common for states as gold reserves, which USA keeps mostly in Fort Knox.

It would be a bit pathetic for them to sell Bitcoins now only to have to buy or mine them in the future. Although I suppose they could seize them from criminals in the future as well.

They announced it but from announcement to actual dump on the market is different. They might do it in 2023 as announcement or they will postpone it till 2024 or 2025 bull market.

I agree that if that they execute it in 2023, they will have a bad execution as if they hold the execution one or two more years, they will gain more money from their selling execution and possibly gain x2, x3, x4 or x5 than the value they can gain if selling in 2023.

People were fearful of US. government dump weeks ago but they were over panic about that. 40k or 50k BTC from the US. government is not too big with Bitcoin trading volume in 2023. The market can absorb it very well but price dump will be seen because of panic selling in the crowd.

I Don't think so! Seized assets are usually sold in batches and it depends on the litigation attached to it. If the court has given a verdict then the government will try to sell the assets to recover the money. They are not HODLers so they won't pick a time based on the market movements.

Yes, it will bring an impact on us for sure who have been accumulating bitcoin to find a suitable time to sell. We may need to delay it further because the price is expected to drive downward due to this huge sell of. But that's it!

Recent Data

https://news.bitcoin.com/us-government-remains-a-top-bitcoin-holder-with-seized-stash-valued-at-5-6-billion/

US Government Remains a Top Bitcoin Holder With Seized Stash Valued at $5.6 Billion

"As of March 25, 2023, the U.S. government held 205,515 bitcoins worth $5.6 billion, which is approximately 1.06% of the circulating supply, according to current statistics. The cache of bitcoins is a result of three forfeitures that began in 2020. Glassnode’s on-chain data reveals that on March 9, about 9,860 bitcoins worth roughly $269 million were sent to a Coinbase address.

Uncle Sam’s Crypto Stash: How the U.S. Government Became a Top Bitcoin Holder
The U.S. government currently holds 205,515 bitcoins valued at $5.66 billion based on today’s exchange rates. The bitcoins were confiscated in three cases, including the Silk Road bitcoin seizure in November 2020, the 2022 Bitfinex hack confiscation, and the seizure of bitcoins from James Zhong last year. Of the total, 69,369 BTC was seized from “Individual X,” 94,643 BTC was taken from Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan, and 51,326 BTC was seized from Zhong in November 2022.

According to a report from Glassnode on March 9, 2023, some of these bitcoins have moved, reducing the total from 215,338 to 205,515 BTC. “Approximately [40,000 bitcoins] from wallets associated with U.S. Government law enforcement seizures are on the move,” Glassnode reported. “The majority of these appear to be internal transfers (so far). However, around 9,861 [bitcoin] seized from the Silk Road hacker have been sent to our Coinbase cluster.”"

Ask them to sign a message

They may not care about the Bitcoin market, but I'm pretty sure they care about the dollar amount they get.

Is the information published by the United States about the bitcoins it owns 100% accurate, or is there some exaggeration to create a state of fear in the market?

For example, I read in some places conflicting information about the quantities seized from the Silk Road (much less than what was reported).

Also I'm wondering why US sells bitcoin sources in batches? I mean, the US governments are not friends with Bitcoin and they don't care about the market crash if the quantities are sold all at once!!

From the news on twitter. I do not guarantee authenticity.

Arkham(C) analytics

The government has always sold on a schedule and everything else around it be damned.
They were auctioning off property late 2008 during the banking implosion since that was when it was scheduled for.

But, I didn't know they still had so much to do. I thought they had already sold a bunch.

Does anyone have a list of all the larger amounts of BTC that governments have seized over the years?

-Dave

https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7541996
https://twitter.com/ArkhamIntel
Arkham tweeted that the U.S. government currently holds more than $6 billion worth of bitcoin on-chain.
"The bitcoins they held were seized from three incidents:
69,370 bitcoins were seized from Silk Road in 2020;
94,640 bitcoins were seized from Bitfinex hackers in 2022, and Silk Road hacker James Zhong was seized in 2022.
There are 51,326 bitcoins (9,861 have been sold and 41,500 are left).
The U.S. government announced plans to sell these bitcoins in batches in 2023."
__
They picked the wrong time