US Justice Department Gets Court Approval to Sell $6.5 Billion in Bitcoin Seized from Silk Road
The news that the US is about to liquidate BTC is causing Bitcoin prices to drop slightly, despite the new US President Donald Trump's statement that he will not let the federal government sell Bitcoin.
According to DBNews (tier10k), the US Justice Department has received US court approval to liquidate 69,370 BTC ($6.5 billion) seized from the Silk Road black market.
The US Govt has been given the greenlight to liquidate 69,000 BTC ($6.5B) from Silk Road, an official confirmed to DB News today
Interesting situation less than 2 weeks away from the new admin who vowed to not sell https://t.co/HqD1KnhJK3 pic.twitter.com/xn8ATSEL7H
— db (@tier10k) January 9, 2025
Specifically, according to a ruling issued on December 30, 2024 but just announced now, the US Department of Justice has won a Bitcoin dispute lawsuit with Battle Born Investments, a company that claimed ownership of the above Bitcoin through "Individual X", who handed over this amount of BTC to the US authorities.
A representative of the US Department of Justice said that the volatile nature of Bitcoin's price was the main reason for the agency to recommend liquidating BTC.
However, it is still unclear whether the US Department of Justice's decision to sell Bitcoin will be accepted by the new US President Donald Trump. As reported, one of Mr. Trump's key policies during the election period was to restore the power of the cryptocurrency sector in the US, which did not exclude the possibility of establishing a strategic BTC reserve for the US by using the amount of Bitcoin that the Department of Justice has seized from criminal activities over the years.
Mr. Trump also confidently declared that he "contributed" to helping the price of Bitcoin surpass the $ 100,000 mark shortly after his election, and even wanted to bring this currency to the $ 150,000 threshold "in the early stages of his term".
In the past, the US government has had many occasions to sell Bitcoin, with the most recent being in March 2023, earning $ 216 million. The United States also announced its intention to liquidate another $117 million in BTC in January 2024, but has yet to provide an update.
By mid-2024, the U.S. Marshals Service said it had signed a custody agreement with Coinbase. Since then, crypto wallets of U.S. officials have regularly moved money to Coinbase, specifically 30,175 BTC ($2.1 billion) in April, 29,800 BTC ($2.02 billion) in July, 10,000 BTC ($594 million) in August, and 19,780 BTC ($1.92 billion) in December. All of these BTC are believed to have originated from Silk Road.
According to statistics from Arkham, the US government still holds more than 198,100 BTC, worth $18.59 billion, along with many other cryptocurrencies such as ETH, USDT, WBTC and other small altcoins.
Bitcoin price has continued to decline in the past 48 hours, even dropping slightly after the news that the US Department of Justice was approved by the court to sell $6.5 billion in BTC was published. Since the court decision was issued on December 30, many have suggested that the decline in Bitcoin in recent days is due to information being leaked by insiders.
