Key Takeaways
- The US Department of Justice was approved to sell 69,370 Bitcoin seized from Silk Road.
- Battle Born Investments opposed the sale but failed to block it.
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The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has received court approval to sell approximately 69,370 Bitcoin seized in connection with the Silk Road darknet marketplace, a haul currently valued at around $6.5 billion, DB News reported Wednesday. The decision is set to end a years-long legal dispute over the BTC stash’s ownership.
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 pic.twitter.com/xn8ATSEL7H
— db (@tier10k) January 9, 2025
On December 30, a federal judge ruled in favor of the DOJ’s request to liquidate the crypto assets. Battle Born Investments, which had asserted a claim to the Bitcoin stash through a bankruptcy estate, ultimately failed in its bid to delay the sale.
The group had pursued a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking the identity of “Individual X,” who initially surrendered Bitcoin, but the effort also proved unsuccessful.
Battle Born’s legal counsel criticized the DOJ’s handling of the case, alleging the department employed “procedural trickery” in its use of civil asset forfeiture to avoid scrutiny.
The DOJ, in its arguments before the court, cited Bitcoin’s price volatility as motivation for seeking a quick sale of the seized assets. A DOJ spokesperson, when contacted, stated, “The Government will proceed further consistent with the judgment in this case.”
News of the DOJ’s clearance to sell the seized Bitcoin briefly pressured the market, with Bitcoin falling from approximately $95,000 to $93,800, CoinGecko data shows. It’s now trading at around $94,300, down almost 3% in the last 24 hours.
The DOJ has not yet released details on the timing or method of the sale.
This is a developing story.
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