According to data, the US government is one of the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) holders, with 205,514 BTC worth $6 billion.
Will Clemente, co-founder of Reflexivity Research, pointed out that the US government obtained its BTC through seizures.
Last year, the US Department of Justice confiscated $3.6 billion in Bitcoin linked to the 2016 Bitfinex breach.
Previously, when the government shut down the Silk Road, it took 70,000 BTC from Ross Ulbricht.
The US government’s large BTC position puts it ahead of whales such as MicroStrategy, which has spent more than $4 billion to acquire 140,000 units of the flagship digital currency.
Meanwhile, Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the blockchain network, is the largest BTC holder, with 1 million BTC.
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust comes in second with 650,000 BTC. Other exchanges on the list include Binance, Coinbase, and Bitfinex.
What is the US government going to do with its Bitcoin?
Based on previous experience, the US government will most certainly sell off the digital assets in the next years.
The US government filed a brief in the Southern District of New York in March indicating that it sold 9,861.17 BTC for $215.5 million.
According to the document, the sold BTC was among the assets recovered from the Silk Road bazaar. The court document also suggested that the government might continue to sell BTC before the end of the year. Rumours circulated earlier this week that the government was selling some of these properties.
Meanwhile, several industry participants have criticised the government’s proclivity towards selling, claiming that it might have gained more money by keeping.
For example, in 2014, the US government sold 29,657 Bitcoin for around $18 million. The same asset is now worth about $900 million.
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