The US government is about to sell 117 million USD in Bitcoin

US officials have announced plans to sell $117 million in confiscated Bitcoin in 2021, linked to illegal activities on the Silk Road "black market".

The US government is about to sell 117 million USD in Bitcoin

In a notice dated January 8, 2024, the US government said it would liquidate nearly 2,934 Bitcoins confiscated from Sean Bridges and Ryan Farace in 2021, two individuals linked toSilk Road, the black market for selling banned goods in BTC was shut down in 2013.

At the time of writing, this amount of Bitcoin is worth approximately 117 million USD.

In 2018, the US Department of Justice prosecuted Ryan Farace for allegedly selling banned substances through Silk Road. At that time, Farace falsely claimed that he had lost access to the amount of BTC obtained from the black market. The plot to disperse Farace's assets was discovered in 2021, leading to confiscation action by authorities. By early January 2024, both Farace and his father were sentenced to prison for money laundering.

The US government is still presentholds more than 207,000 BTCEvidence seized from crime suppression activities is worth nearly 9 billion USD. In March 2023, the Chinese authorities took actionsold 9,800 BTC, earning 261 million USD.

The US then announced that it would conduct many more BTC liquidations in 2023, but that did not happen, making this another source of "coin dumping" that the cryptocurrency community has to worry about in 2024. - next to the seGrayscale, FTX,Mt. GoxandCelsius.