The US Government Has More Than 200,000 BTC at its Disposal
The US government currently owns approximately 200,000 BTC, equivalent to $8.4 billion, according to data from Blockworks.
This amount has significantly increased from just three months ago, when it was at $5 billion, due to the rise in the price of Bitcoin.
Of the total confiscated 207,189 BTC between 2020 and 2022, 9861 BTC have been sold so far.
These funds were associated with illegal activities on the darknet marketplace Silk Road, as well as from a notorious hacker and Bitfinex exchange hackers.
Experts from Blockworks noted that the sale of these bitcoins in March 2020 generated $215 million at an average price of $21,800 per bitcoin, which is roughly half of the current value.
According to court documents, there are plans to sell the remaining coins seized from James Zhong by November 2021.
Zhong had pleaded guilty a year earlier for illegally obtaining the bitcoins through fraudulent means on the Silk Road marketplace.