The U.S. Department of Justice has concluded the legal process of acquiring 69,370 bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that had been seized from the now-closed Silk Road platform. The August court decision approving the forfeiture has formally taken effect following recent filings with the federal appeals court.
The confiscated crypto assets were previously controlled for years by government agencies and are currently valued at over $3 billion. In 2013, an unnamed party who allegedly accessed the holdings by bypassing Silk Road’s security voluntarily handed them over. Court documents list Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht as a defendant in the forfeiture case, alongside two other claimants, with the U.S. government named as plaintiff.
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Silk Road was permanently shut down in 2013
Silk Road was permanently shut down in 2013 after an FBI investigation. According to authorities, the site had enabled the unlawful sale of controlled substances, weapons, and other illegal merchandise. Its accused creator, Ulbricht, was convicted on charges of money laundering and operating a criminal business.
This year, Ulbricht relinquished ownership claims on the seized bitcoins. He also consented to forgo an additional $3 billion in allegedly pirated crypto funds. The agreement was meant to reimburse a portion of the purported Silk Road revenue.
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U.S. officials have retained the bitcoin stash since 2013, when it was entrusted by an unidentified party. In 2020, the Justice Department pursued civil forfeiture based on claims of unlawful ownership.
The conclusion of forfeiture terms follows recent transfers of the contested cryptocurrency from long-held wallets into two government-controlled accounts, the first movements since 2015.