Cointime

Cointime

Download App
iOS & Android

US Government Holds Over $6 Billion Worth of Bitcoin in Custody from Three Seizures

Cointime Official

May 6 (Cointime) - The US Government is currently holding over $6 billion worth of Bitcoin in custody, according to a recent tweet by @ArkhamIntel.

The government's holdings consist of Bitcoin seized from three different events. The first seizure took place in 2020 from the Silk Road, which resulted in the government gaining custody of 69.37K BTC. In 2022, the government seized 94.64K BTC from the Bitfinex Hack and 51.326K BTC from Bitcoin thief James Zhong. 

Read the full thread:

Silk Road BTC was seized in late 2020 from a hacker known as Individual X, who had stolen it from the Silk Road marketplace in from 2012 to 2013.

The BTC is currently held in custody by the FBI.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/united-states-files-civil-action-forfeit-cryptocurrency-valued-over-one-billion-us

The BTC from Silk Road is held in a single wallet:

bc1qa5wkgaew2dkv56kfvj49j0av5nml45x9ek9hz6

This wallet holds 69,369 BTC, worth just over $2B at current prices.

In 2016, the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex was hacked for over 100K BTC.

This was traced by US officials to over 2000 BTC addresses owned by Ilya Lichtenstein, a Russian-US national from New York.

US Law enforcement seized over 94K BTC from Lichtenstein in Jan 2022.

Bitfinex BTC seized by the FBI is held in the following wallet:

bc1qazcm763858nkj2dj986etajv6wquslv8uxwczt

This wallet holds 94,643 BTC, worth over $2.7B at current prices.

James Zhong, another individual who hacked Silk Road, was investigated in 2021-2022, with over 50K BTC surrendered to the US Department of Justice (DoJ).

4 different wallets currently hold a total of 51,326 BTC, seized from James Zhong in 2022.

These wallets are:

30.175K BTC bc1qf2yvj48mzkj7uf8lc2a9sa7w983qe256l5c8fs

9K BTC bc1qe7nk2nlnjewghgw4sgm0r89zkjzsurda7z4rdg

1.5K BTC bc1qzd8c8h8dcgwuy5zdafdzdce2ap0nayf8v3xrez

825 BTC bc1qmxjefnuy06v345v6vhwpwt05dztztmx4g3y7wp

The US Gov. still holds 41.5K BTC in these wallets.

The US Government declared its intention to sell this BTC in batches over the year 2023, with 9.861K BTC already sent to Coinbase for liquidation.

Despite claiming to sell the Bitcoin on March 14th, the execution price was significantly lower than the spot price of that day.

On 7th March 2023, the US Government sent 9.861K BTC to Coinbase in three transactions, in order to liquidate it for USD.

This seems to be a settlement transaction with a trading partner - the US Gov. appears to have sold BTC by TWAP (Time Weighted Average Price) over Q1 2023.

  This Arkham entity contains a complete list of US Government wallets, and all holdings from the prior three seizures in this thread. Follow this link, and hit 'clone entity' to import it into your personal instance of Arkham: https://platform.arkhamintelligence.com/explorer/entity/7ff7bdb4-7414-45a5-a5ec-dd3f1a173c32

Bitcoin
Comments

All Comments

Recommended for you

  • Uniswap’s market share in DEX has dropped to 36%

    The DEX landscape is undergoing changes, with the market share of the veteran decentralized exchange Uniswap dropping from over 50% in October 2023 to the current 36%.

  • Exowatt completes $20 million financing, a16z participates in the investment

    Startup company Exowatt announced that it is addressing the energy needs of data centers through its ceramic battery technology. The company claims that its technology can store solar energy for months, helping to cope with the rapid growth of power consumption in data centers. The company has received $20 million in seed funding, with investors including a16z and Altman. According to reports, Exowatt has accumulated 1.2 gigawatts of orders, mainly focused on data centers and cryptocurrency mining projects in the United States.

  • Singapore police investigate Worldcoin account transactions, arrest five people

    On September 10th, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced that Singaporean police are investigating seven individuals suspected of providing Worldcoin account and token trading services. This investigation involves possible violations of the Payment Services Act of 2019, and the police have arrested five people.

  • Putin: Russia "supports" Harris, calls her smile "contagious"

    According to foreign media such as TASS and Russia's Sputnik News, Jinse Finance reported that on the afternoon of September 5th local time, Russian President Putin said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum 2024 that Russia will "support" the US Democratic Party presidential candidate and vice president Harris as recommended by the US President Biden in the upcoming US presidential election. When asked how he viewed the 2024 US election, Putin said it was the choice of the American people. The new US president will be elected by the American people, and Russia will respect the choice of the American people. Putin also said that just as Biden suggested his supporters to support Harris, "we will do the same, we will support her." The report said that Putin also joked that Harris' laughter is "expressive and infectious," which shows that "she is doing everything well." He added that this may mean that she will avoid further sanctions against Russia.

  • An ETH whale repurchased 5,153 ETH with 12.23 million USDT 20 minutes ago

    A certain high-frequency trading ETH whale monitored by on-chain analyst Yu Jin bought 5,153 ETH with 12.23 million USDT 20 minutes ago.

  • CFTC: Uniswap Labs has actively cooperated with the investigation and only needs to pay a fine of US$175,000

    The CFTC has filed a lawsuit against Uniswap Labs and reached a settlement. It was found that Uniswap Labs illegally provided leveraged or margined retail commodity transactions of digital assets through a decentralized digital asset trading protocol. Uniswap Labs was required to pay a civil penalty of $175,000 and cease violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The CFTC acknowledged that Uniswap Labs actively cooperated with law enforcement agencies in the investigation and reduced the civil penalty.

  • Federal Reserve Beige Book: Respondents generally expect economic activity to remain stable or improve

    The Federal Reserve's Beige Book pointed out that economic activity in three regions has slightly increased, while the number of regions reporting flat or declining economic activity has increased from five in the previous quarter to nine in this quarter. Overall employment levels remain stable, although some reports indicate that companies are only filling necessary positions, reducing working hours and shifts, or reducing overall employment levels through natural attrition. However, reports of layoffs are still rare. Generally speaking, wage growth is moderate, and the growth rate of labor input costs and sales prices ranges from slight to moderate. Consumer spending has declined in most regions, while in the previous reporting period, consumer spending remained stable overall.

  • Puffpaw Completes $6 Million Seed Round with Lemniscap Ventures as Participant

    Puffpaw has announced the completion of a $6 million seed round of financing, with participation from Lemniscap Ventures. The Puffpaw project plans to launch a blockchain-enabled electronic cigarette aimed at helping users reduce nicotine intake through token incentives. The project encourages users to quit smoking by recording their smoking habits and rewarding them with tokens. Puffpaw's token economics aims to cover 30% of the cost of users' first month of using their product and provide social rewards. The project also considers possible system abuse, but the issue of users potentially reporting smoking habits dishonestly is not yet clear.

  • Cointime August 17th News Express

    1.VanEck and 21Shares Solana ETF Form 19b-4 Suspected to be Removed from CBOE Website

  • MicroStrategy is looking to sell its Class A shares to raise $2 billion to buy more Bitcoin

    MicroStrategy is seeking to sell its Class A shares to raise up to $2 billion to purchase more Bitcoin and for general corporate purposes.In regulatory filings filed with the U.S. SEC, MicroStrategy did not disclose a timetable for stock sales or how much proceeds would be used to purchase Bitcoin.Earlier in June this year, MicroStrategy announced the issuance of $500 million unsecured senior convertible notes to purchase more Bitcoin, and one day later raised the issue price to $700 million.

Daily Must-Read

Popular Activities

Delysium $AGI & AI Private Yacht Party

Delysium $AGI & AI Private Yacht Party

March 27 - March 27
Seoul

Popular Tags

Cointime
News
Contents
RSS
Company