US Government Moves $2 Billion in Silk Road Bitcoin

[TomPluz]

Just days after Trump vowed that the U.S. would "keep 100%" of seized Bitcoin if elected, the government just moved $2 billion in BTC tied to Silk Road.

The United States government moved just over $2 billion worth of seized Bitcoin connected to the Silk Road dark web marketplace to a new, as yet unidentified wallet, according to on-chain data shared by Arkham Intelligence.

It’s not yet known whether the United States plans to sell today’s transferred Bitcoin. Decrypt reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment and clarification, but did not receive an immediate response.

Get more details of this Bitcoin development here!


Do you think that soon this BTC worth at least $2 Billion will be sold on the market or you think that this is just a normal movement for other reason? I am sure that in case it will be sold, it can create some impact on the market and can surely stifle momentum for BTC to go beyond the $70K level and maybe make a new ATH. I am then seeing the possibility of another Germany or MtGox effect to some degree...or maybe the market will not anymore react to this development as it is already tired.

[Kemarit]

I'm not sure if they are going to sell it, however, in the beginning of the month, they have this statement,

Today, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice that is responsible for asset forfeiture, announced that it selected Coinbase Prime to provide custody and advanced trading services for the agency’s “Class 1” (large cap) digital assets, which it manages centrally in support of federal law enforcement. The USMS conducted a competitive due diligence process that evaluated a range of solutions, ultimately choosing Coinbase due to our strong track record and ability to securely provide institutional-grade crypto services at scale.

https://www.coinbase.com/blog/u-s-marshals-service-chooses-coinbase-to-safeguard-trade-its-large-cap

So most likely this move has nothing to do with Trump saying that it will "keep 100%" of seized Bitcoin if elected". But it was not just Coinbase though, includes in the movement is to Bitfinex and then a unknown Bitcoin address worth $2 billion.


https://platform.arkhamintelligence.com/explorer/entity/usg

[hugeblack]

Does anyone know if the government should disclose the sale?
Anyway, Bitcoin absorbing German government liquidity without a correction is an indication of high demand on the price and may put temporary pressure on the price but eventually once the supply stops the price will increase like crazy.

[Uruhara]

I'm not sure the US will sell it at this point. because this movement of moving bitcoin doesn't seem to be the first time this has been done. But temporary panic in the market always occurs. Just like when news related to the German government and MT.Gox continued to be shown by the news media. But in the end we can see that demand in the market is quite high and the impact of the news should not be strong enough to cause Bitcoin to make a deep correction. Maybe it will just correct like to 63 or 64 and after that climb back to higher prices. Unless there is other bigger news. Or if this news is exaggerated by the media to create fear.

[ABCbits]

Do you think that soon this BTC worth at least $2 Billion will be sold on the market or you think that this is just a normal movement for other reason?

I don't believe those BTC will be sold on market. In past, US government already hold auction for Bitcoin confiscated from criminal[1]. With the same auction format, there'll be multiple buyer where i expect only few of them would sell those immediately.

[1] https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/us-government-to-auction-bitcoin-worth-over-300000

[snowpega]

I came to know about this news about 2-3 months ago when the US government seized Silk Road Bitcoin which was worth $2.1 Billion dollar at that time, it is really huge amount in my view. other than that if you come to judge the movement according to your post dear then I would say it is difficult to say what the US government's exact plan is as they have moved the seized amount to another wallet which is the unknown transaction. But if the US government sells this amount it can affect the current market price.

After the selling of the German government selling market is still in good condition but if in case us also sell this seized amount then I think we can see the market at some lower level as I think there we will see panic selling which can also in the form of FUD but currently Demand is high over supply so the market is sitting at a good point. DYOR!

[Lucius]

~snip~
Do you think that soon this BTC worth at least $2 Billion will be sold on the market or you think that this is just a normal movement for other reason? I am sure that in case it will be sold, it can create some impact on the market and can surely stifle momentum for BTC to go beyond the $70K level and maybe make a new ATH. I am then seeing the possibility of another Germany or MtGox effect to some degree...

It is not clear what exactly they are doing, but I think that the transactions still suggest that they are not doing it just because they are bored, but that the BTC will probably get a new owner. However, it is an even smaller amount than that from the "German story", so I would not worry too much about the impact on the price - it is much better if all these sales are done as soon as possible so that the market is as less burdened as possible in Q4.

[Stompix]

Does anyone know if the government should disclose the sale?

All the branches, the US Marshals and the Assets Forfeiture Management have reports and audits, they have to report to Congress also.
Things like this https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/24-018_0.pdf

But as they no longer hold auctions and use a contractor for digital assets then the judge in charge of the case has mandated them to liquidate, so nobody but the guys doing it will know the exact date and they have no obligation to announce them, at this point, it's a private contract, you know, their keys their coins 

[electronicash]

it would have been deposited to coinbase wallet if they plan to sell it as it would most likely be sold to Blackrock. maybe if price goes way higher in another bull market, they will sell it.

whoever hold those coins just got paranoid that Trump may seized it from them so they move the coins somewhere lol if its their keys, its their coins not the government. whoever he is, he surely sees Trump winning already and the best solution is to move it.  thumbs up!

[Baofeng]

Does anyone know if the government should disclose the sale?

All the branches, the US Marshals and the Assets Forfeiture Management have reports and audits, they have to report to Congress also.
Things like this https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/24-018_0.pdf

But as they no longer hold auctions and use a contractor for digital assets then the judge in charge of the case has mandated them to liquidate, so nobody but the guys doing it will know the exact date and they have no obligation to announce them, at this point, it's a private contract, you know, their keys their coins 

Yes, they are probably mandated by law now, as before they will just auction it and then those early adopters get that chance to be a bag holder early on. But now it's totally different for the US government, maybe they will sell it at a certain time but nobody knows.

So if we look at the trail, they are consolidating it to Coinbase and some exchanges. And when the right time comes, they are going to sell it and nobody can stop them from doing that. It's just the question whether it will have a bad effect on the market or not.

[yhiaali3]

It is not entirely clear why these moves on the US government wallet and the transfer of Bitcoin to a new wallet are happening, but most likely the reason is not selling, at least there is no official statement.

One of the analyses of these moves might be that this is just a political move by the old President Biden after Trump's statement about the reserve, maybe he wants to tell him that I am still in the White House and you do not own anything, also perhaps some senators who oppose Bitcoin want to sell the government's Bitcoin before Trump takes office.

[Z-tight]

One of the analyses of these moves might be that this is just a political move by the old President Biden after Trump's statement about the reserve, maybe he wants to tell him that I am still in the White House and you do not own anything, also perhaps some senators who oppose Bitcoin want to sell the government's Bitcoin before Trump takes office.

Lol, i don't believe it can be any of that and moving these coins has nothing to do with the forthcoming elections. If they are going to sell those coins soon, then they must have been mandated by law to liquidate it and i don't think it is up to the wishes of any single individual, nor their opposition to BTC.

[yhiaali3]

Lol, i don't believe it can be any of that and moving these coins has nothing to do with the forthcoming elections. If they are going to sell those coins soon, then they must have been mandated by law to liquidate it and i don't think it is up to the wishes of any single individual, nor their opposition to BTC.

So what is the purpose of moving these bitcoins at this time? If it is not for sale or for elections, then what is the purpose of transferring them to another wallet? Do you have another analysis?

I am saying this is just an analysis, nothing more. It may be correct or wrong, and there may be other reasons that we do not know. No one knows the real reason except the US government that transferred the coins. But this movement at this time seems strange in any case.

[ABCbits]

Lol, i don't believe it can be any of that and moving these coins has nothing to do with the forthcoming elections. If they are going to sell those coins soon, then they must have been mandated by law to liquidate it and i don't think it is up to the wishes of any single individual, nor their opposition to BTC.

So what is the purpose of moving these bitcoins at this time? If it is not for sale or for elections, then what is the purpose of transferring them to another wallet? Do you have another analysis?

I am saying this is just an analysis, nothing more. It may be correct or wrong, and there may be other reasons that we do not know. No one knows the real reason except the US government that transferred the coins. But this movement at this time seems strange in any case.

If it's not sale or auction, i would speculate they update or change how they secure the confiscated Bitcoin.

[pakhitheboss]

Do you think that soon this BTC worth at least $2 Billion will be sold on the market or you think that this is just a normal movement for other reason? I am sure that in case it will be sold, it can create some impact on the market and can surely stifle momentum for BTC to go beyond the $70K level and maybe make a new ATH. I am then seeing the possibility of another Germany or MtGox effect to some degree...or maybe the market will not anymore react to this development as it is already tired.

They have 35 trillion dollars in debt and the share market is already crashing. They will surely use this opportunity to sell those Bitcoins and bleed the cryptocurrency market. Looks somewhat similar to Germany when they sold Bitcoin to recover the illegal money. What makes it laughable is that these countries were against Bitcoin and now they are dependent on it. Bitcoin will easily hold on as the ETF inflow is good but I do not think it will be as recession is on the way.