Bitcoin shares in the US Treasury Department have risen exponentially in recent years, giving the US government what is believed to be the largest BTC reserves in the world. As a result of three major criminal seizures, the US Treasury Department is estimated to be in possession of at least 194,188 BTC tokens. Currently, with Bitcoin trading at a price of $28,363 (approximately Rs. 23.6 lakh), the US Treasury could hold BTC worth $5.5 billion (approximately Rs. 45,778 crore).
In the past three years, US law enforcement agencies have managed to solve three crypto-related crimes and recover crypto in bulk. These cases include the Silk Road darknet debacle, the seizure of Silk Road-related stolen BTC from US citizen James Zhong, and the Bitfinex hacking thing.
In an analysis, crypto firm 21.co reportedly said that the 194,188 BTC token expected to be with the US government could be a lower bound based solely on publicly available information. In reality, the assets could be even greater.
US government is among the largest #Bitcoin hodlers with over $5 billion in BTC:
The $5 billion estimate is based on three major seizures related to the @bitfinex hack and Silk Road, meaning the actual assets could be much larger. pic.twitter.com/DXqH9ueILS— Phan Nghia MMO (@phannghiammo) October 17, 2023
The US Marshals Service will be responsible for the sale of seized property. It cannot give the government immediate possession of seized assets. Instead, the Marshals Service must first obtain a final forfeiture order from the court before the assets can be turned over to the government.
At regular intervals, the US courts order the liquidation of assets, after which the government sells some of their BCT holdings at auction.
The crypto culture in the US is growing, which is also leading to an exponential increase in criminal activity surrounding these assets. The US SEC is closely monitoring crypto companies, including Coinbase and Binance. The US government has taken strict measures to ensure that crypto-related companies go through strict documentation before inflating their operations. It also expects crypto companies to identify suspicious activities and report them to law enforcement authorities so that timely action can be taken.
