{"id":75837,"date":"2023-03-20T13:10:43","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T11:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=75837"},"modified":"2025-09-10T13:54:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T10:54:43","slug":"u-s-governments-foregone-profits-from-selling-bitcoins-exceed-5-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/u-s-governments-foregone-profits-from-selling-bitcoins-exceed-5-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. government&#8217;s foregone profits from selling bitcoins exceed $5 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. government forewent at least $5.1 billion in profits from the &#8216;hasty&#8217; sale of bitcoins seized from criminals. This was highlighted by Jameson Lopp, chief technology officer of the Casa startup.<\/p>\n<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>\n<p lang='en' dir='ltr'>Did you know that the US Government has seized and sold over 185,000 BTC since 2014? See how much better off they would have fared had they decided to HODL: <a href='https:\/\/t.co\/jn6hAMbj1I'>https:\/\/t.co\/jn6hAMbj1I<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jameson Lopp (@lopp) <a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/lopp\/status\/1637720196910665728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>March 20, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src='https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8'><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He cited the statistics published by the United States Marshals Service (USMS) <a href='https:\/\/jlopp.github.io\/us-marshals-bitcoin-auctions\/'>\u0441\u0442\u0430\u0442\u0438\u0441\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0443<\/a>, according to which since 2014 authorities have seized and sold at auction more than 185,230 BTC for $151.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>The current value of this quantity of bitcoins stands at $5.2 billion.<\/p>\n<blockquote class='wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow'>\n<p>\u201cLook how much better off they would have fared if they had decided to HODL,\u201d wrote Lopp.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The majority of the bitcoins listed relate to funds seized from the closed darknet marketplace Silk Road. USMS confiscated from the platform&#8217;s founder Ross Ulbricht more than 144,000 BTC, whose value at the time was estimated at $122 million. The agency also gained control of 29,000 BTC from various wallets linked to Silk Road.<\/p>\n<p>The last item in the list is <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/u-s-authorities-seize-silk-road%e2%80%91linked-bitcoin-worth-more-than-1-billion-69370-btc\">69 370 BTC<\/a> (approximately $1 billion at the time of seizure), confiscated in November 2020 by the U.S. Department of Justice. As they have not yet been liquidated, their current value is not determined.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the list includes 500 BTC seized by authorities in the Northern District of Ohio <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/northern-district-of-ohio-has-obtained-more-than-19-million-from-the-sale-of-confiscated-bitcoins\">in a fraud case<\/a>, and a number of other assets.<\/p>\n<p>As of November 2020, the address containing 69 370 BTC from Silk Road was considered <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/69370-btc-moved-from-one-of-the-wealthiest-wallets-hackers-had-been-trying-to-crack-it-for-years\">the world&#8217;s fourth-largest holder of bitcoin<\/a>. It is now <a href='https:\/\/bitinfocharts.com\/top-100-richest-bitcoin-addresses.html'>\u043d\u0430 \u0432\u043e\u0441\u044c\u043c\u043e\u043c \u043c\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0435<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. government forewent at least $5.1 billion in profits from the &#8216;hasty&#8217; sale of bitcoins seized from criminals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1172,26],"class_list":["post-75837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-seized-bitcoins","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"54","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75839,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75837\/revisions\/75839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}