The U.S Government owns more Bitcoin than any other nation in the world. Through raids and sales, the government holds approximately $1.8B in Bitcoin, which amounts to around 69,000 BTC.
According to Forbes, the US has held onto the crypto assets, specifically Bitcoin, that it has received in bulk supply through asset seizures. It has participated in auctions to sell off some of the stash, however, the US still holds a majority of its initial BTC holdings.
“As money supply was increasing, and as fear of inflation was increasing, bitcoin adoption on a sovereign level was also increasing,” Dr. Sachin Jaitly, a general partner at investment advisor Morgan Creek Capital, says. It’s likely that due to the inflation crisis that has plagued much of the year, the US Government has had to act on its BTC holdings.
The first BTC raid by the US Government dates back to June 2020. The Department of Justice [DOJ] seized 69,370 BTC reportedly from an unidentified dark web market. At the time, it was worth $1.4 billion.
Since then, the government has had multiple crypto raids and has held onto a fair amount of the BTC retrieved. The U.S. Justice Department has auctioned off BTC to investors in the past. The government hasn’t had a significant Bitcoin auction in a while. Therefore, it isn’t certain when the next one will take place.
With crypto regulation rising in the US, it is interesting to know how much the government holds in various crypto. Furthermore, what the government will do with the rest remains up for debate.