As of March 25, 2023, the US government held 205,515 bitcoins worth $5.6 billion, which is about 1.06% of the circulating supply, according to current statistics. The bitcoin cache is the result of three forfeitures beginning in 2020. On-chain data from Glassnode reveals that around 9,860 bitcoins worth approximately $269 million were sent to a Coinbase address on March 9.
Uncle Sam’s Crypto Stash: How the US Government Became a Major Bitcoin Holder
The US government currently holds 205,515 bitcoins valued at $5.66 billion at current exchange rates. Bitcoins were seized in three cases, including the Silk Road bitcoin seizure in November 2020, the Bitfinex hack seizure in 2022, and the James Zhong bitcoin seizure last year. Of the total, 69,369 BTC was seized from “Individual X”, 94,643 BTC was taken from Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan, and 51,326 BTC it was seized from Zhong in November 2022.
according to a report from Glassnode on March 9, 2023, some of these bitcoins have been moved, bringing the total down from 215,338 to 205,515 BTC. “Approximately (40,000 bitcoins) of wallets associated with US government law enforcement seizures are on the move,” Glassnode reported. “Most of these appear to be internal transfers (so far). However, around 9,861 (bitcoin) seized from the Silk Road hacker have been sent to our Coinbase group.”
The current estimate of 205,515 bitcoins (BTC) comes from Dune Analytics set of metrics created by 21Shares, a provider of publicly traded products. The data shows US government addresses and transaction history. From the current seized cache of BTC, 44% came from the Bitfinex seizure, 32.2% from “Individual X” and 23.8% from the Zhong seizure. Additionally, the US government may own more bitcoins than are counted in the 21Shares data set. The summary indicates that the 205,515 BTC it is “a lower bound estimate” based solely on “publicly available information”.
The 205,515 bitcoins seized by the US government constitute a sizeable cache compared to that of other major holders. Although smaller than Grayscale’s cache of 643,572 BTCsurpasses Microstrategy’s stash of 132,500 BTC. Also, compared to the whales in the bitcoin rich list of addresses, it would be the second largest (if consolidated), falling behind Binance’s bitcoin cold wallet, which has 248,597 BTC at the time of writing.
The federal government’s stash of bitcoins is also larger than the roughly 140,000 BTC in the Mt Gox cache. This isn’t the first time the US government has been a top headliner; the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was the second largest BTC incumbent after taking over the original Silk Road market. However, the government stash at the time was depleted after US Marshals held bitcoin auctions to sell off the crypto assets in 2014.
What do you think about the current US government stash of bitcoins? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any product, service or company. bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
