U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month
Alex Thorn
Head of Firmwide Research
Galaxy
Hear Alex Thorn share his take on “Bitcoin and Inflation: It’s Complicated” at Consensus 2023.
Alex Thorn
Head of Firmwide Research
Galaxy
Hear Alex Thorn share his take on “Bitcoin and Inflation: It’s Complicated” at Consensus 2023.
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Oliver Knight is a CoinDesk reporter based between London and Lisbon. He does not own any crypto.
Alex Thorn
Head of Firmwide Research
Galaxy
Hear Alex Thorn share his take on “Bitcoin and Inflation: It’s Complicated” at Consensus 2023.
Alex Thorn
Head of Firmwide Research
Galaxy
Hear Alex Thorn share his take on “Bitcoin and Inflation: It’s Complicated” at Consensus 2023.
The U.S. government sold 9,861.17 bitcoin (BTC) for almost $216 million on March 14, a court filing shows.
The bitcoin sold is part of the 50,000 BTC seized in November following the arrest of James Zhong, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud after the government alleged he manipulated the transaction system on dark net market Silk Road in 2012. At the time, the government hailed it as the largest cryptocurrency seizure.
The government intends to liquidate the remaining 41,490 BTC in four tranches over the course of this calendar year, the filing said.
Crypto traders were spooked after seeing U.S. authorities transfer over $200 million worth of bitcoin to Coinbase on March 9. Price action was volatile as a result, rising as much as 9.7% in a 24-hour period before returning to parity.
Today, however, bitcoin remains unperturbed by renewed concerns of selling pressure from the U.S. government. It continues to trade at range highs of $28,400, a level it has been tied to over the past fortnight.
Edited by Sheldon Reback.
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Oliver Knight is a CoinDesk reporter based between London and Lisbon. He does not own any crypto.
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Oliver Knight is a CoinDesk reporter based between London and Lisbon. He does not own any crypto.
