{"id":8978,"date":"2025-07-20T18:41:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T15:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/20\/no-the-us-government-hasnt-sold-179000-bitcoin\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T18:41:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T15:41:01","slug":"no-the-us-government-hasnt-sold-179000-bitcoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/20\/no-the-us-government-hasnt-sold-179000-bitcoin\/","title":{"rendered":"No, the US government hasn\u2019t sold 179,000 bitcoin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reports confusing the difference between seized and forfeited assets have led pro-crypto Senator Cynthia Lummis to panic that the US has committed a \u201ctotal strategic blunder\u201d by selling off 179,000 bitcoin (BTC).<\/p>\n

Numerous Bitcoiners<\/a> and crypto news outlets reported<\/a> that the US sold 85% of its BTC holdings ($21 billion) after a freedom of information request revealed<\/a> that the US Marshals Service only holds 28,988 in forfeited BTC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They believed that the US held almost 200,000 BTC (worth $23 billion<\/strong>) based on data from crypto trackers such as Arkham<\/a> and Bitcoin Treasuries<\/a>, and that it must have sold off most of this stash.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Upon seeing the reports, a worried Lummis said<\/a>, \u201cIf true, this is a total strategic blunder and sets the United States back years in the bitcoin race.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m alarmed by reports that the U.S. has sold off over 80% of its Bitcoin reserves\u2014leaving just ~29,000 coins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If true, this is a total strategic blunder and sets the United States back years in the bitcoin race. https:\/\/t.co\/ciYf1uhy0x<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) July 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>

It\u2019s worth noting that the agency can hold<\/a> seized assets, but they weren\u2019t revealed within yesterday\u2019s FOI.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Read more: FOIA reveals US Marshals sitting on at least $1.6B in BTC<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

However, the US doesn\u2019t actually own 200,000 BTC, and this entire sum isn\u2019t going to make up the government\u2019s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve announced this year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The BTC recorded by Arkham and Bitcoin Treasuries is made up of forfeited and seized BTC.<\/p>\n

Forfeited BTC, like that held by the US Marshals Service, is seized first and then approved<\/a> for compensation to victims or government ownership.<\/p>\n

Seized BTC, however, is held by the government until it determines<\/a> whether it should be forfeited. The 95,000 BTC seized from Bitfinex hackers, for instance, is still unclaimed<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bitfinex awarded $0 in restitution<\/h2>\n

Disputes over who is owed bitcoin that the government possesses can drag on for years.<\/p>\n

BTC seized from the 2016 Bitfinex hack was originally headed back to Bitfinex until some users claimed they were victims who were owed restitution.<\/p>\n

The process of determining who will receive the BTC is still working through the process with an April 4\u00a0order<\/a>\u00a0throwing the decision over who is owed restitution to a third-party ancillary proceeding.<\/p>\n

Since the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve consists<\/a> only of government-owned forfeited BTC, it won\u2019t, as things stand, contain this Bitfinex seizure.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the US government hasn\u2019t sold billions of dollars worth of BTC<\/strong>, and its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve will be significantly less stocked based on the disclosure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Users used the Arkham data to call<\/a> the coverage by journalist L0la L33tz, the journalist behind yesterday\u2019s FOI, a conspiracy.<\/p>\n

However, BTC treasury firm leader David Bailey also noted<\/a> that Arkham \u201cdoesn\u2019t account for a custodian making intraledger transactions.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via\u00a0<\/em>Protos Leaks<\/em><\/a>. For more informed news, follow us on\u00a0X<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Bluesky<\/em><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/em>Google News<\/em><\/a>, or subscribe to our\u00a0<\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>\u00a0channel.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post No, the US government hasn\u2019t sold 179,000 bitcoin<\/a> appeared first on Protos<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reports confusing the difference between seized and forfeited assets have led pro-crypto Senator Cynthia Lummis to panic that the US has committed a \u201ctotal strategic blunder\u201d by selling off 179,000 bitcoin (BTC). Numerous Bitcoiners and crypto news outlets reported that the US sold 85% of its BTC holdings ($21 billion) after a freedom of information […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-invest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}