Did you know that one of the largest Bitcoin whales happens to be the U.S Government it's believed to hold almost 200 000 BTC worth almost six billion Dollars and recently some of this BTC Has been on the move this has led to Speculation that the government is about To sell now the last time this happened Was in March and the crypto Market Crashed as a result shortly after the U.S government announced it would be Selling more and history suggests it Will eventually sell all its BTC today We're going to tell you everything you Need to know about the US government's BTC including where it all came from What Uncle Sam could do with it and how All of this could impact the market I'll start by saying that nobody Actually knows how much BTC is held by The US government or any government for That matter That's because crypto Holdings by Governments aren't typically disclosed And those that are disclosed are Probably just the tip of the iceberg That said the U.S government is known to Hold at least 194 000 BTC this is based on on-chain Analysis conducted by glass node as you Can see the US government's BTC balance History only goes back to November 2020 And it had been rising until March this Year when it started to decline and if
You're wondering where all this BTC came From the answer is that it was Confiscated from criminals caught by U.S Authorities on three occasions Just under 70k BTC in November 2020 when Glass node started tracking this just Over 94k BTC in February 2022 and just Over 51k BTC in November 2022 Now the first seizure was related to Silk Road at darknet Marketplace more About that in a moment the second Seizure was related to the bitfinex hack That crazy crypto rapper girl and her Husband if you'll recall and the third Seizure was again related to Silk Road In this case a chap who had stolen it Back in 2012. now obviously these aren't The only seizures of BTC that the US Government has made they're just the Ones that have made the headlines other Notable mentions include the colonial Pipeline hack in 2021 when U.S Authorities managed to gain access to The Hacker's private key and take a Measly 64 BTC and the US government has Also made dozens of other BTC seizures In the past the biggest likely being Related to the shutdown of Silk Road in 2013. U.S authorities reportedly seized over 144 000 BTC from the website's Creator Ross Albrecht who received what many say Is an excessive sentence life in prison What's crazy is that some of the agents
Involved in taking down the Silk Road Marketplace were then subsequently Arrested for stealing BTC it's possible That the 70k BTC related to Silk Road That was confiscated in November 2020 Came from another rogue agent since the Identity of the person was never Revealed on that note the FBI agent who Arrested Ross mentioned in an interview That over 170k BTC had been seized not 144k If you add that to the additional 130k BTC you end up with over 400k BTC that The US government had seized just from Silk Road watch that interview if you Have the time it's fascinating now Silk Road isn't the only Dark Net Marketplace That U.S authorities have taken down Either it was eventually replaced by Another darknet Marketplace called Alpha Bay which was itself taken down in the Summer of 2017. the US government Reportedly seized only 1600 BTC on that Occasion which seems hard to believe That's because Alpha Bay was Significantly larger than Silk Road to Put things into perspective Silk Road Had 100 000 users while Alpha Bay had Over two hundred thousand it's also Believed that Alpha Bay operated the Largest Bitcoin mixing service at the Time that's because it went down at the Same time Alpha Bay did as such it's Safe to assume that the US government
Seized a lot more than 1600 BTC from Alpha Bay when you add the likely 400k BTC from Silk Road and the 94k BTC Seized from the bitfinex hacker and Other cyber criminals it's very likely That the US government has seized well Over 500k BTC in the last decade alone It's possible that we will eventually Know exactly how much BTC the government Has seized as blockchain analytics Technology becomes more advanced the Fact it wasn't Advanced back then Explains why there are so many Discrepancies in the data newsflash Almost every crypto transaction can be Tracked and if you want to know how Crypto transactions are tracked you can Find out using the link in the Description Speaking of discrepancies you might have Noticed that the US government has Seized at least 500k BTC but only holds Around 194k BTC as of today Logically that's because it's sold most Of the BTC that it's ever seized what's Annoying is that these selling Activities aren't entirely clear either For example a recent Forbes article Estimated that the US government has Sold around 190k of the BTC it has ever Seized however it notes that the US Government only seized 260k BTC leaving It with a balance of 70k which we know Is incorrect again the US government
Holds at least 194 kbtc at least for now What is clear is that the US government Sold all the BTC that it had initially Seized from Silk Road 144 kbtc was sold Across three auctions in 2014 and 2015. Notable buyers included pro-crypto Billionaire Tim Draper who bought 30k BTC and digital currency group CEO Barry Silbert who bought 50k BTC now you'll Recall that the FBI agent who arrested Ross specified that around 170k BTC had Been seized not 144k This 25k shortfall could be explained by The fact that Australian authorities had Seized 25k BTC related to Silk Road 144k Plus 25k equals just shy of 170k This 25k BDC was also auctioned off in 2016. in 2017 it was revealed that the U.S government had auctioned off the 144k BTC it seized at an average price Of just 334 USD per BTC this seems to Have been significantly below btc's Market price at the time which was Almost 600 during the first auction keep This in mind for later Now given that the US government seems To have a habit of selling seized BTC Following a cryptocycle top it's Possible if not likely that it sold the BTC as it seized from alpha Bay sometime In 2018 or 2019. we couldn't find any Articles about this probably because it Wasn't a large amount according to Bloomberg the US government had in fact
Gotten access to additional BTC Associated with mixing services that Were being used by Alpha Bay however Someone else had access to the private Key for the wallet they had seized Allowing a third party to basically Steal all the seized BTC truly crazy Stuff in any case the US government's Recent sales of BTC are consistent with Its past Behavior albeit with a one-year Delay this is probably because the bulk Of the BTC seizures took place after the Crypto cycle top was in 145 kbtc in 2022 Interestingly these sales have focused On the BTC related to Silk Road as I Mentioned in the introduction the first Of these sales took place in March this Year just under 10k BTC was sold in Contrast to its past Behavior the US Government didn't sell this BTC at Auction on-chain analysis revealed that It transferred this BTC to coinbase Presumably to sell on the open market Later that month the US government Revealed that it plans on selling the Remaining 40K BTC by the end of the year Across four tranches so four more sales Of 10K BTC it seems that the first of These four remaining sales is imminent As the US government moved an additional 10K BTC earlier this month It's important to point out that the 50k BTC the US government is in the process Of selling apparently comes from the 51k
BTC that was seized late last year it's Likely that the U.S government will sell The 70k BTC it seized in 2020 in the Coming months as it's also related to Silk Road as for the BTC from the Bitfinex hack the fact that U.S Authorities recently returned a small Portion of this BTC 2 bitfinex suggests That they can't sell it unless it's Properly seized so to speak naturally Bitfinex hopes to get all of this BTC Back eventually and it looks like it Probably will Assuming nothing happens to tether of Course but that's a topic for another Time Anywho this begs the question of what Impact if any the US government's BTC Sales are having on the crypto Market The answer depends on many factors Including whether the BTC is being sold Over the counter or OTC whether the BTC Is being sold on exchanges and if BTC Holders are paying attention now in Theory selling BTC OTC doesn't impact its price that's Because the sale takes place directly Between two parties depending on the Amount of BTC the price per coin will be Higher or lower than the market price That's because it's not always possible To sell lots of BTC at its market price On the open market put simply if you Want to sell thousands of BTC you're
Better off selling it OTC because if you Sell it all on an exchange your selling Will crash the price and you won't get As much money in return Now in practice the impact of selling BTC over the counter depends on how much Of a discount it's being sold at Relative to its market price you'll Remember that the US government Auctioned the initial BTC it seized from Silk Road at a huge discount possibly up To 50 percent relative to its market Price this means it's possible if not Likely that some of the participants in These BTC auctions decided to sell some Of their BTC on the open market to make An instant profit case in point there Were headlines back then which Speculated about the possibility that These OTC related sales were crashing Btc's price in case it wasn't clear Enough selling BTC directly on exchanges May cause prices to crash how much BTC Crashes in response to the sales Ultimately depends on Market depth on How many people are buying or selling BTC on a particular exchange FYI Market Depth is very low during bear markets Market depth has been particularly low Recently due to an exit of major market Makers and record low levels of BTC Supply on exchanges this means that it's Easy to push btc's price up or down and This volatility is being Amplified by
All the leverage on offshore exchanges Liquidations are big Market Movers at The time of shooting this it only takes 10 to 20 million dollars of cell Pressure to push btc's price down by two Percent on most major exchanges not Counting liquidations this means that It's more than likely that the US Government sale of 250 million dollars Worth of BTC on coinbase back in March Contributed to btc's flash crash at the Time to be fair it's more than likely That the banking crisis was the primary Cause especially since it caused the Usdc stablecoin to dpeg which caused Chaos among altcoins and D5 the U.S Government's BTC sales coincidentally Took place at the exact same time that The banking crisis was occurring it's Also more than likely that the US Government's BTC sales from earlier this Month were done OTC if in fact they Occurred at all Besides the absence of on-chain evidence That this 10K BTC went to exchanges There's also been huge demand for BTC From institutional investors because of The recent ETF fomo then again the U.S Government could be waiting for another Crypto or macro crisis to occur so that It can do extra damage to BTC at the Time of shooting everyone is waiting for A shooter drop that's related to either Binance TUSD dcg or any of the other
Crypto entities that have been in Difficulties recently now this isn't Necessarily a conspiracy theory either According to cointelegraph the on-chain Activity of the US government's most Recent BTC movement suggests that their Quote testing liquidity strategies in Other words they're testing how much BTC They can sell before it starts to crash Its price on exchanges Regardless how much the US government's BTC sales affect the crypto Market also Depends on how BTC holders react to this News the silver lining of being in a Crypto bear Market is that not many People are paying attention so news of The US government dumping BTC doesn't Cause all that much speculative selling Anyhow to wrap things up let's now Explore the possibility that the US Government is intentionally trying to Crash btc's price with its selling Activities in principle the US Government probably wants to maximize The profits it gets from selling BTC and Crashing the price would result in less Profits In reality though the US government's Past BTC sales suggest that it doesn't Care that much about making a profit This probably has to do with the fact That the US government can print money And this is something that the current Administration has been doing a lot of
Lately This ties into the US government's Motivation to crash btc's price Governments around the world are Becoming aware of the fact that some Cryptocurrencies are direct competitors To their Fiat currencies take a second To consider that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently said this out loud Now this is bullish because it suggests That mass crypto adoption is imminent But it's bearish because it suggests That governments are going to do Everything in their power to either Control or stop the cryptocurrencies That they believe to be a threat to Their National currencies Some cryptocurrencies can in fact be Controlled such as centralized stable Coins that's because centralized stable Coins rely on existing Financial Infrastructure and are therefore easy to Regulate it's not yet clear whether the U.S government wants to just control Stable coins or completely kill them and It's not just stable coins either Proof of State cryptocurrencies can Arguably be controlled since they're Fundamentally a derivative of Fiat Currencies that's because you can Theoretically print the Fiat you need to Control a proof-of-state crypto this is Easiest to do if you can print US Dollars like the US Government Can
Conversely proof of work cryptos are Much harder to control that's because You need to provide more than 51 of the Mining power to take control of a Proof-of-work crypto this is why ESG Obsessed investors aren't that concerned About the E they're concerned with the G The control more about that in the Description moving on Now if you've been keeping up with the Crypto headlines you might have noticed That politicians around the world have Effectively used bitcoin's alleged Environmental impacts as excuses to try And get rid of BTC one EU politician Literally suggested crashing bcc's price To kill proof-of-work mining in the US The current administration's approach Has been to try and make Bitcoin mining More expensive through regulatory Restrictions and taxes the recently Proposed 30 tax on Bitcoin mining would Crush the country's proof-of-work Miners And conveniently result in Mass Surveillance of all computers There's just one small equation that Doesn't add up and that's why the US Government would return some of the BTC Stolen from bitfinex Back to The Exchange considering its connections to Tether For reference tether has received Extreme regulatory scrutiny in the U.S And elsewhere due to usdt from our
Perspective it's possible that the US Government wanted to see where this Returned BTC would go and where the fiat Currency that's cashed out if any would Go This would explain why authorities Recently seized a bank account at the Bank used by tether in the Bahamas this Could be yet another coincidence but There's no question that the US Government wants to either control or Kill a crypto industry it's sobering to Consider that both approaches involve Actions that result in a market crash The ongoing regulatory Crackdown is Irrefutable evidence of this the only Question is which bucket each crypto Will fall into If BTC truly can't be controlled then The US government will have no option But to try and kill it For now though it looks like the US Government is still trying to control it If this is the case then Bitcoin will be Too big to be killed by the time the US Government changes its tune Come the 1st of January 2025 central Banks around the world will be allowed To hold crypto on their balance sheets Given their accumulation of gold in Recent years you can bet they will buy BTC more about that using the link in The description And that's all for today's video folks
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