U.S. Government Now Holds Over $8.3 Billion in Bitcoin

BroadChain Finance BroadChain has learned that on January 4, thanks to healthy price gains, the U.S. federal government now holds at least $8.3 billion in bitcoin – a figure that was $5 billion less than three months ago, according to Blockworks.

Between November 2020 and 2022, U.S. authorities in three separate operations disclosed a total of 207,189 bitcoins seized in connection with the Silk Road darknet marketplace, its hacker Jimmy Zhong, and the hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex.BITMAIN 

Less than 5 percent of these seizures were sold, and in February 2023, the government sold 9,861 BTC on Coinbase that had belonged to Silk Road.These transactions brought in $215 million for the government, and sold for an average of $21,800 per Bitcoin, roughly half the current price. Bitcoin mining

U.S. attorneys at the time said they intended to sell the remaining Silk Road bitcoins – 41,491 BTC, then worth $1 billion, and currently worth $1.8 billion – in four installments over the next calendar year. That period will expire in two months.