The US government currently holds around 198,109 Bitcoin worth $17.7 billion, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, a stash that it built mainly through seizures and forfeitures in criminal cases.
A portion of that Bitcoin (BTC) will eventually form part of the country’s “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” that President Donald Trump signed into existence with his March 6 executive order, which says the reserve will hold any Bitcoin “forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings or in satisfaction of any civil money penalty.”
The order also tasks federal agencies with figuring out how much forfeited Bitcoin they hold so it can be added to the cache. While the industry awaits the official audits, Cointelegraph has gathered a timeline of some of the biggest events that made the US the world’s largest nation-state holder of Bitcoin.
69,370 BTC in November 2020: First Silk Road seizure
US authorities seized 69,370 Bitcoin on Nov. 3, 2020 — its largest crypto seizure at the time worth $960 million — from an unidentified individual who hacked the illicit online marketplace Silk Road.
The hacker, known as “Individual X,” surrendered the funds after US officials traced the stolen Bitcoin linked to wallet addresses that they used to interact with Ross Ulbricht’s Silk Road platform before it was shut down in 2013.
On Dec. 30, 2024, a district court judge denied a motion to block the forfeiture of 69,370 Bitcoin, clearing the Department of Justice to sell the stash, which had swollen to a value of $6.5 billion.
94,636 BTC in January 2022: Bitfinex hack
US law enforcement officers seized 94,636 Bitcoin from Bitfinex hacker Ilya Lichtenstein on Jan. 31, 2022, after they hacked into his cloud storage account, which contained a file holding around 2,000 crypto wallet addresses and corresponding private keys.
The Bitcoin that US authorities seized represented about 80% of the 119,754 Bitcoin that Lichtenstein stole from Bitfinex.
Source: Scott Melker
Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan laundered the other 25,111 Bitcoin before US officials successfully executed the search warrant.
Lichtenstein and Morgan were sentenced to five years imprisonment and 18 months, respectively, in late 2024.
Galaxy’s head of research, Alex Thorn, however, noted that the stolen Bitfinex funds are only seized funds and have not been forfeited.
As a result, those funds may be handed back to Bitfinex.
51,351 BTC in March 2022: Second Silk Road seizure
US authorities seized and successfully sought the forfeiture of 51,351 Bitcoin from a Silk Road hacker named James “Jimmy” Zhong — who may or may not be “Individual X” — in March 2022.
Zhong surrendered the funds around four months after US officials found Bitcoin devices in an underground floor safe and in a popcorn tin stored in Zhong’s bathroom closet at his home in November 2022.
The 51,351 Bitcoin was valued at around $3.38 billion at the time, making it one of the largest financial asset seizures in US history.
US sold some Bitcoin
The US sold 9,861 Bitcoin for $215.7 million on March 14, 2023, which came entirely from the Bitcoin seized from Zhong.
The remaining Bitcoin from Zhong’s forfeiture was expected to be liquidated in four more batches throughout 2023, but that didn’t eventuate.
This past January, the Department of Justice received the green light to sell the 198,109 Bitcoin seized from Silk Road.
However, the Biden administration didn’t take action before Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20.
Related: Texas Senate passes Bitcoin strategic reserve bill
While the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve will only initially start with forfeited BTC, the White House said its Commerce and Treasury Secretaries would explore how to buy more at no cost to US taxpayers.
The establishment of the Bitcoin reserve means no funds within it will be sold — a move that White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks criticized the previous US administration for undertaking.
Source: David Sacks
Magazine: Bitcoin payments are being undermined by centralized stablecoins
