A push to sell thousands of Bitcoin on the open market is costing the US government some serious gains.
Back in March, the government sold 9,861 BTC worth about $216 million at the time.
Flash-forward to today, just seven months later, that BTC is now worth $332 million – a difference of $116 million.
The US acquires Bitcoin largely through seizures related to criminal proceedings.
And by the end of this year, the government has promised to sell the remaining 41,490 BTC seized from James Zhong, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud after being accused of manipulating transactions on the darknet marketplace Silk Road.
Despite this year’s sales, the US still holds more than $5.5 billion in Bitcoin, according to recent on-chain analysis from researchers at 21.co. The massive pile of BTC represents nearly 1% of BTC’s total circulating supply.
The firm, which tracks crypto wallets connected to the government, says that number is a “lower-bound estimation” of US government holdings based on publicly available information.
The largest crypto asset by market cap has surged from $16,615 on January 1st to $33,575 at time of publishing, representing a 102% increase.
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