US Govt Could Be World’s Largest BTC Reserve Owing to Seizures from Silk Road, Bitfinex Hack

Bitcoin holdings in the US Treasury has risen exponentially in recent years, making the US government reportedly the largest BTC reserves in the world. Owing to three big seizures from criminal cases, the US Treasury is estimated to be in possession of at least 194,188 BTC tokens. Presently, with Bitcoin trading at the price point of $28,363 (roughly Rs. 23.6 lakh), the US treasury could be holding BTC worth $5.5 billion (roughly Rs. 45,778 crore).

In the last three years, the US law enforcement agencies managed to bust three crypto-related crimes and recovered crypto in bulk. These cases include the Silk Road darknet debacle, seizure of Silk Road-related stolen BTC from American national James Zhong, and the Bitfinex hack hassle.

In an analysis, crypto firm 21.co has reportedly said that the 194,188 BTC token projected to be with the US government – could be a lower-bound estimation solely based on publicly available information. In reality, the holdings could be even larger.

The Marshals Service in the US gets to take the responsibility of selling seized property. It cannot give the government possession of seized assets immediately. Instead, the Marshals Service first needs to get a definitive forfeiture judgment from the court before handing over the assets to the government.

After regular intervals, the US courts order asset liquation, after which the government sells some portion of their BCT holdings through an auction.

The crypto culture in the US is growing, which also leads to criminal activities around these assets rising exponentially. The US SEC has been keeping an eagle's eye over crypto firms, including Coinbase and Binance. The US government has been taking strict measures to ensure that crypto-related businesses go through rigorous documentation before blowing up on their operations. It also expects crypto businesses to identify suspicious activities and report them to the law enforcement authorities so that timely action could be attempted.