Uncle Sam has an unlikely stack of bitcoins to sell all at once.

The United States government has seized about 200,000 BTC from cybercriminals and holds one of the largest Bitcoin hoards in the world. However, Uncle Sam doesn't seem to be in any hurry to shed the fat pile and takes the unthinking stance of a lazy holler.

The federal government holds approximately $5.4 billion worth of bitcoin. If released, this huge stock will definitely move the markets and increase selling pressure.

No urgency to sell.

On October 15, The Wall Street Journal delved into the government's bitcoin holdings. The US has been “too slow to convert Bitcoin reserves into dollars,” he said.

Moreover, it does not appear that he will deliberately buy for a high price, he explained.

“That large pile of bitcoins is the result of a long legal process rather than a strategic plan.”

“We don't play the market,” said Jarrod Koopman, director general of the IRS's Division of Cyber ​​and Forensics Services. We are basically prepared for the time in our process.

BTC is stored offline in hardware wallets controlled by agencies such as the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Moreover, due to lengthy investigations and legal proceedings, it can take years from the first seizure to liquidation. This has sometimes allowed the government to benefit from Bitcoin's price appreciation.

Once cases are settled, the Marshals Service will liquidate the bitcoins and distribute the proceeds to victims or cover the costs of investigations.

Early liquidations were done through auctions, but now exchanges like Coinbase are used. Marshalls Services distributes sales to avoid market influence.

Nicholas Christin, professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, commented.

“The government generally moves very slowly to dispose of those assets because they have to do a lot of due diligence, the issues are often complicated and there's a lot of red tape.

In a recent sale in March, the government sold 9,861 BTC through Coinbase. “Our goal is to dispose of the assets at fair market value at the time,” a government spokesperson said.

As reported by BeenCrypto, the government started moving BTC again in July.

Uncle Sam's Big Bitcoin Stash

According to 21.co, the parent company of 21shares, the US government has seized at least 215,000 BTC since 2020. Since 2020, three attacks have been tracked on the Dune Analytics page.

The November 2020 Silk Road seizure was 69,369 BTC. The January 2022 Bitfinex hack seizure totaled 94,643 BTC, while the March 2022 James Zhong seizure was 51,326 BTC.

This means that the total number may be higher than the 194,188 BTC that 21.co counted and tracked.

All in all, it is absurd to think that this entire portion of BTC could be depleted at once and cause a market crash.