U.S. government holds about $8 billion in Bitcoin as price rises

The U.S. government may have the largest public holdings of Bitcoin among any government.

Written by David Canellis

Compiled by: BitpushNews Jarl Cheung

Bitcoin holders have a lot to be happy about in the new year: Bitcoin prices are rising, a Bitcoin spot ETF is about to be approved, the number of Bitcoins remains unchanged over the year, hitting an all-time high, and more.

The U.S. government should be happy, too. Thanks to a healthy rebound in Bitcoin prices, the US federal government now holds at least $8.3 billion in Bitcoin – up from just $5 billion less than 3 months ago. Between November 2020 and 2022, authorities disclosed a total of 207,189 Bitcoins seized in three separate operations linked to pioneering darknet market Silk Road, its hacker Jimmy Zhong, and hackers of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex related. In February last year, the federal government transferred 9,861 Bitcoins seized from the Skill Road website to Coinbase, but less than 5% of the Bitcoins were sold. The transactions netted $215 million, with the average Bitcoin sold for $21,800, about half the current price. A lawyer said that the government authorities plan to sell Silk Road’s remaining Bitcoins in four subsequent batches, totaling 41,491, which is now equivalent to approximately US$1.8 billion.

The U.S. government has made $640 million in revenue from the seizure of Bitcoin sold by criminals. If these transactions are counted as sales, the U.S. government’s revenue from Bitcoin over the past 10 years is considerable. In the coming months, the market may see more Bitcoin being sold by the U.S. government. It is unclear whether the Bitcoin seized from the Bitfinex hackers will be sold.

According to 2023 research, the U.S. government may be the public institution holding the largest number of Bitcoins among governments, ahead of El Salvador, Ukraine, Bhutan, Venezuela, and Finland, which collectively hold only 4,000 Bitcoins BTC, approximately $172 million. But the Chinese government’s holdings are not included in the statistics. In 2020, the Chinese government seized 195,000 Bitcoins from the crypto Ponzi scheme PlusToken, along with a large number of cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and XRP. If China hadn’t sold off prematurely like the U.S., the two superpowers’ Bitcoin holdings would have been roughly even.