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As of March 25, 2023, the US government held 205,515 bitcoins worth $5.6 billion, which is about 1.06% of the circulating supply, according to current statistics. The cache of bitcoins is the result of three confiscations that began in 2020. Glassnode’s on-chain data reveals that on March 9, around 9,860 bitcoins worth approximately $269 million were sent to a Coinbase address.
The US government currently holds 205,515 bitcoins worth $5.66 billion based on today’s exchange rates. Bitcoins were confiscated in three cases, including the Silk Road bitcoin seizure in November 2020, the Bitfinex hack in 2022, and the seizure of bitcoins from James Zhong last year. Of the total, 69,369 BTC were seized from “Individual X”, 94,643 BTC were taken from Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan, and 51,326 BTC were seized from Zhong in November 2022.
According to a report as of Glassnode March 9, 2023, some of these bitcoins have moved, reducing the total from 215,338 to 205,515 BTC. “Approximately [40,000 bitcoins] from wallets linked to US law enforcement are seizures on the move,” reported Glassnode. “Most of these appear to be internal transfers (so far). However, around 9,861 [bitcoin] seized from the Silk Road hacker has been sent to our Coinbase cluster.”
The current estimate of 205,515 bitcoins (BTC) comes from a Dune Analytics set of calculations made by 21Shares, an exchange-traded product provider. The data shows US government addresses and transaction history. Of the current seized cache of BTC, 44% came from the Bitfinex seizure, 32.2% from “Individual X” and 23.8% from the Zhong seizure. In addition, the US government may hold more bitcoins than are listed in 21Shares’ dataset. The summary notes that 205,515 BTC is “a lower estimate” based solely on “publicly available information.”
The US government’s seized 205,515 bitcoins constitute a significant stash compared to other major holders. Although smaller than Grayscale’s cache of 643,572 BTC, it surpasses Microstrategy’s stash of 132,500 BTC. Additionally, compared to the whales in the bitcoin-rich list of addresses, it would be the second largest (if consolidated), falling behind Binance’s bitcoin cold wallet, which has 248,597 BTC at the time of writing.
The federal government’s bitcoin stash is also larger than the approximately 140,000 BTC in the Mt Gox cache. This is not the first time the US government has been a peak holder; The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was the second largest BTC holder after seizing the original Silk Road marketplace. However, the government’s hold at the time was exhausted after US Marshals held bitcoin auctions to sell crypto assets in 2014.
What do you think of the US government’s current bitcoin stash? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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