Bitcoin Bombshell: You Won’t Believe How Little the US Government Owns! 🤯

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Imagine a vault, overflowing with glittering Bitcoin treasures, or so we thought! 🤑 A sneaky Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, filed by the intrepid journalist L0la L33tz in March, has blown the lid off the US Marshals Service’s (USMS) Bitcoin holdings. And, oh dear, it’s a bit of a letdown! 😔

According to the documents, the USMS has a measly 28,988.35643016 BTC, valued at a paltry $1.6 billion, based on their outdated estimate of $56,000 per coin. Meanwhile, the market is trading at a whopping $119,000 per coin – more than double that! 🚀

A Mere 28,988 Bitcoin Left? 🤔

the difference between seized assets and forfeited assets. She explained, “The USMS is mainly in charge of forfeited assets, meaning assets that have been made property of the Government. The list I received from the USMS is a list of all BTC held by the USMS, as requested by DB. The USMS can be in charge of seized assets, but these can also be held with seizing agencies, like the DEA or the FBI – meaning that there may be other custody offices than the USMS.” 🤓

This nuance is critical because many market observers had relied on on-chain analytics platforms, such as Arkham or databases like Bitcoin Treasuries, to estimate US government holdings. However, L33tz noted that these sources likely overstate actual government-owned Bitcoin because they track seized assets, not those formally forfeited and available for liquidation. “To the geniuses that have linked Arkham’s gov wallet tracker: these do not seem to be BTC that have been made the Gov’s property – at least not exclusively – which means they can’t sell them. For example, Arkham lists 94k BTC from the Bitfinex hack, but forfeiture in the Bitfinex case hasn’t been decided, at least last time I checked,” she wrote. 📝

The FOIA disclosure also sheds light on the operational process. The USMS has historically managed forfeited digital assets and liquidated them via public auctions, a practice dating back to the early days of BTC when the agency sold coins from the Silk Road seizures. L33tz stated, “US Marshal Service liquidates assets in public auctions, so unless they announced a sale, this list should be accurate.” This suggests the current holdings represent coins awaiting auction rather than active strategic reserves. 📊

The findings have also reignited speculation about possible covert sales by the Biden administration during the transition period. Executive Director of the Bitcoin Policy Institute Matthew Pines remarked via X, “Great work by Lola, which if true, confirms my suspicion that the Biden admin was covertly selling OTC during the transition. Note: my understanding is the total BTC in USG possession is significantly larger than this number but its origin & present disposition is classified.” 🤫

“Incredible. The US government holds less Bitcoin than an individual who just dumped 40,000 BTC in the last few days. The idea of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is laughable when individuals own more Bitcoin than the US government.” 😂

At press time, BTC traded at $118,279. 💸

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2025-07-17 17:13