The U.S. Authorities Hold More Bitcoins Than Microstrategy

The biggest corporate market player in crypto, Microstrategy, is defeated by the U.S. government. The government currently has the largest crypto holdings. An increase in the Bitcoin price is a boon for the U.S. government. Three months ago the government had Bitcoin holdings of $5 Billion, which now surged to at least $8.3 Billion.

Microstrategy holds 189,150 BTC which is around $5.9 Billion and is working on measures to add more.

Last month, the government took hold of 70,000 Bitcoins from the Silk Road. The proliferation of Bitcoins by the authorities is due to the actions taken by them between November 2020 and 2022. The action resulted in the capture of 207,189 BTC coins.

The seized Bitcoin is linked with different activities, including the notorious dark web market Silk Road, its hacker Jimmy Shong, and hackers involved with the Bitfinex crypto exchange breach. 

Plan of U.S Government Regarding Seized Bitcoin

The government has sold 5% of the Bitcoin captured. Earlier the authorities liquidated 9,8611 BTC in February last year, which was priorly owned by Silk Road. They have sold it on the Coinbase platform. The sale has generated $215 Million. Bitcoins have sold for $21,800 per coin, which is half the current market price.

The U.S. attorneys have announced their objective to sell the remaining Bitcoins from the Silk Road which totaling 4,491 BTC. It was valued at around $1 Billion at that time and it is $1.8 Billion in the market today.

Blockworks reported the authority planned to make sales in 4 batches with 2 months remaining until the expiry of this period. The market waits for the updates of the Bitcoin holdings and sales by the government.

Sale of Seized Bitcoin

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice potentially completed the sales by sending 8,200 BTC coins (which were valued at $252 Million then and $350 Million now) to Coinbase in July. However, confirmation of actual trades resulting from transactions remains unverified.

If these transactions are regarded as sales, the US government has generated $640 Million by seizing and selling Bitcoin. Now, the BTC price is 70 times more. If US authorities had chosen to seize BTC rather than sell them, then their holding would be equivalent to 17.4 Billion.

The market is unaware of the current official timeline of sales of Bitocin by the government. However, it is anticipated that more Silk Road captured Bitcoin will be soon liquidated.

Presently, the U.S. government holds the biggest stash of Bitcoin overshadowing El Salvador, Ukraine, Finland, etc. The authorities have seized huge amounts from 2020 till this year. 

Summary

The U.S. government is holding more Bitcoins than Microstrategy. The latest seizure of 70,000 Bitcoins from the Silk Road by authorities has made them ahead of the largest crypto corporations. However, Microstrategy holds 189,150 BTC coins, which is around $5.9 Billion.

Amanda Shinoy is one of the few women in the space invested knee-deep in crypto. An advocate for increasing the presence of women in crypto, she is known for her accurate technical analysis and price prediction of cryptocurrencies. Readers are often waiting for her opinion about the next rally. She is a finance expert with an MBA in finance. Quitting a corporate job at a leading financial institution, she now engages herself full-time into financial education for the general public.