US Government Among Largest Bitcoin Hosts With Over $5B in BTC: Report
The United States government has become one of the largest holders of Bitcoin (BTC), worth more than $5 billion, with more than 200,000 BTC worth millions earlier this year.
Based on data analysis of public documents, crypto firm 21.co estimates that the US government still holds 194,188 BTC, worth $5.3 billion. The organization said in its analysis that these are “underestimates of US government holdings based on publicly available data.”
The analysis looked at the bitcoin activity of US government wallets associated with the three largest BTC raids since 2020: the November 2020 raid of 69,369 BTC, the Bitfinex Hack of 94,643 BTC in January 2022, and the James Zong raid of 51,326 BTC in March 2022.
The government's bitcoin stash is primarily held offline in encrypted storage devices known as hardware wallets operated by the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service. The U.S. government has two major coups in 2022.
Related: US Government Plans to Sell 41K Bitcoins Linked to Silk Road
Seized assets are not immediately owned by the government. The U.S. Marshals Service, the main agency charged with selling the seized assets, will get possession of the seized bitcoins after a court ruling.
In addition, the U.S. government may from time to time auction a portion of the seized bitcoins pursuant to court orders. The most popular government tender In 2014, billionaire Tim Draper bought 30,000 BTC from a US government auction.
However, in recent years, the U.S. government has turned to crypto exchanges to sell its held bitcoins at public auctions. One such sale was confirmed in early March when the government sold 9,118 BTC on Coinbase through a public offering.
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