US Govt. Dumps $216 Mn Of Bitcoin Connected To Silk Road; Plans To Sell 41K BTC In 2023

In a filing made on March 31 with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York concerning the case against James Zhong, it was stated that authorities from the United States government had started liquidating approximately 51,352 Bitcoin (BTC) that had been seized in connection with the Ulbricht case. According to the document, on March 14, government officials sold approximately 9,861 Bitcoins for more than $215 million, retaining almost 41,491 BTC to be sold later.

US To Sell Silk Road Bitcoin

The filing further revealed that the government intended to off-load the remaining 41K BTC in four separate lots throughout the course of this calendar year. Considering Bitcoin’s price at the time of writing, this sale would translate to roughly $1.2 billion in favor of the US government.

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According to the court filing, the United States government was quoted as saying:

The Government understands [that the Bitcoin] is expected to be liquidated in four more batches over the course of this calendar year.

Zhong entered a guilty plea in November on accusations of committing wire fraud in conspiring a plot to steal bitcoins from Silk Road in the year 2012. However, in November 2021, law enforcement officials from the United States raided his residence in Georgia and confiscated more than 50,000 BTC, which was reportedly worth over $3 billion at the time.

Markets Spooked By Revelation

In light of this news, crypto traders and market participants became slightly concerned after seeing that US authorities transferred over $200 million worth of bitcoin to Coinbase earlier this month. With the US planning to offload an additional 41K Bitcoins along with the Mt.Gox repayments slated to be disbursed this year — the crypto market anticipates mounting sell pressure for the flagship cryptocurrency.

As things stand, the price of BTC is currently exchanging hands at $28,334 which represents an increase of 2.02% over the past 24 hours in comparison to a gain of 2.51% recorded over the previous seven days.

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