US Government To Sell 41,500 Bitcoin Connected To Silk Road
• April 4, 2023 2:42 pm • CommentsIt may be surprising to some, but the US government is actually one of the largest holders of Bitcoin as it currently has more than 200,000 BTC.
A lot of that Bitcoin comes from the government seizing Bitcoin that was obtained illegally or was used for money laundering purposes.
Most recently, there has been a large number of BTC that was obtained that is connected to the Silk Road marketplace and it has been announced that the seized Bitcoins will now be sold off.
The total amount being sold is around 41,500 Bitcoin which is currently worth around $1.18 billion which will be released at different intervals in the next year.
So far, it seems that it has not had any effect on the price of BTC given that the BTC bull rally still remains strong.
JUST IN‼️🇺🇸 US government sold 9,861 #Bitcoin linked to Silk Road on March 14.
Remaining 41,490 #BTC to be sold in four batches in 2023.
…and yet price still going up! 🤑
— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) March 31, 2023
Watcher.guru reports:
According to the details in the court documents, the government is planning to sell bitcoin in four different batches this year.
The details revealed that the government had begun liquidating 51,351.89 bitcoins forfeited in the Ulbricht case.
The government sold 9,861 BTC for a total of $215 million on March 14, 2023. The government is planning to liquidate the rest of the 41,490.72 BTC in four different batches this calendar year.
The value of 41,490.72 BTC at press time stands at $1.18 billion according to BTC’s current price of $28,448.
Of course, this is not the first time that the US government has sold seized Bitcoin as it had just previously sold almost 10,000 BTC earlier this year for $215 million.
The announcement of this news did not seem to phase the crypto community given that this is typically what has happened in the past.
There were also some within the crypto community that offered to purchase that Bitcoin off of the US government such as Justin Sun who offered to buy the BTC at a 10% discount.
Current data shows that the government is still the largest holder of BTC which indicates that BTC certainly has inherent value despite many crypto critics.
The U.S. government plans to liquidate the remaining 41,490.72 BTC connected to Silk Road. https://t.co/oBYkSmhDv9
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) March 31, 2023
CryptoNewsFlash reports:
Taking to Twitter, the CEO of Tron, Justin Sun has disclosed an interest in purchasing Bitcoin’s from Silk Road. Many have predicted that the sale could trigger the market to sink.
However, the Tron boss intends to reduce the bearish impact that the sale might have on the crypto market. As such, Justin Sun is proposing to purchase the Silk Road Bitcoins involved, under one condition.
“US government has announced its intention to sell an additional 41,500 BTC this year. To minimize the potential impact on the market, I would like to offer to purchase these BTC at a 10% discount for an OTC deal.
While the community aniticapes getting a response from the U.S. government, market reactions to Justin Sun’s offer have been mixed. While some are in support of Sun’s move, others are calling it a bluff. Some key players have also insisted that the offer might have been made casually.
The U.S. government sold about $216 million of seized bitcoin linked to the Silk Road market earlier this month. It plans to sell the remaining 41,490 BTC over four transactions this year. Reporting by @oknightcrypto.https://t.co/GuOWZAUNcA
— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) March 31, 2023
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