According to the Wall Street Journal, the US government is one of the largest holders of Bitcoin in the world, but unlike other cryptocurrency giants, it is not concerned about whether the value of digital currency is rising or falling. This is because the approximately 200,000 Bitcoins held by the US government were confiscated from cybercriminals and the dark web market. These Bitcoins are mainly stored in encrypted, password-protected hardware wallets controlled by the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, or other agencies and are not traded online.

According to analysis of public documents by the cryptocurrency company 21.co, the government's vault has received more than 200,000 Bitcoins from just the last three seizures. Even though the government has sold about 20,000 Bitcoins, the value of its holdings still exceeds $5 billion. Legal procedures from the seizure of illegal Bitcoins to the receipt of final orders to liquidate the tokens can take several years. In some cases, this is advantageous for the government because the value of cryptocurrency has risen significantly.