The US Government and Bitcoin Seizures: Facts over Fiction

The world of cryptocurrency is rife with rumors and speculations. One topic that has been of significant discussion is the US government's purported seizure and subsequent sale of Bitcoin ($BTC). While a lot has been said, what really transpired? This article delves deep into the matter, distinguishing facts from hearsay.

1. Verified Bitcoin Seizures by the US Government

The US government's foray into seizing Bitcoin is not new. There have been three major seizures:

• Silk Road (2013): A dark web marketplace known for illegal trade was the first instance where the US authorities seized a substantial amount of Bitcoin.

• Bitfinex (2016): A popular cryptocurrency exchange that experienced one of the significant seizures.

• James Zhong (2021): An individual whose wallet became a target for the US authorities.

  
  

2. Quantifying the Seizures

When we break down the numbers, here's what was confiscated:

• Bitfinex's seized wallet held $2.82B, equivalent to 94.64k BTC.

• Silk Road's seized wallets amounted to $3.24B, which translates to 108.5k BTC.

• The James Zhong seizure involved a comparatively smaller figure of $24.63M, or 825 BTC.

This brings the total to an astonishing $6.09B or 204k BTC.

3. Delving Deeper into the Seizures

Bitfinex Seized Wallet:

• This wallet witnessed a flurry of inflow transactions, predominantly in 2022.

  
  

Silk Road Wallets:

• Two significant transactions are notable: one on 11/04/20 involving 69k BTC and the other on 3/7/23 with 39k BTC.

• While at a cursory glance, there seem to be over 80 transactions, on closer inspection, it's evident that there hasn't been any substantial inflow or outflow post 11/04/20.

  
  

James Zhong's Wallet:

• This wallet has been active with various transactions in and out.

• The total inflows amounted to $2.19B, and the outflows were about $881M, bringing net flows to $1.31B.

4. Track the Addresses

For those keen on delving deeper and monitoring the wallets in question, you can do so here. This analysis was powered by the tool Loch, which offers crypto portfolio intelligence across multiple blockchains.