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US Government to Liquidate Confiscated 130 Million BTC
US Government Holds Additional 69,000 BTC
According to a recent notice submitted by the US government on January 8th, the Maryland District Court has approved the sale of 2,875 bitcoins (BTC) related to a drug case involving Silk Road. The document states that the US government will dispose of these bitcoins in accordance with the instructions of the US Attorney General. The seized bitcoins were valued at approximately $133 million at the time of filing.
According to the indictment, the accused drug dealer is Ryan Farace, who went by the alias “XANAXMAN” on the dark web marketplace Silk Road and earned over 9,100 BTC through drug transactions using bitcoin. In addition, Ryan Farace’s father Joseph Farace and former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges were also sentenced to prison for money laundering and other serious crimes in this case.
The US Attorney General will provide instructions on how to handle the confiscated assets. According to the document, stakeholders other than the defendants will have 60 days from January 10, 2024, to submit supplemental petitions. After this deadline, the US government will obtain clear ownership of the assets and can transfer good title to any subsequent purchasers or transferees.
In fact, in December of last year, the US Court of Appeals approved an order officially authorizing the seizure of 69,370 bitcoins and other cryptocurrency proceeds related to the now-defunct Silk Road. The US Department of Justice has been seeking formal seizure of these bitcoins since 2020, with the initial ruling made in August of last year and officially announced in December.
Market observers have been closely monitoring the flow of these funds and believe that the US government’s large-scale sale of these bitcoins may impact the price of cryptocurrencies.
