The Justice Department has reportedly approved the sale of the seized 69K BTC, which Trump planned to redeploy to the strategic reserve.
The seized BTC has not been transferred from the main wallets as of this writing.
Crypto Twitter was very upset by speculation that the United States has given the green light to the Department of Justice to sell 69,000 Bitcoins (BTC), worth $6.5B, seized from Silk Road.
The update was first shared by media publisher DB News, citing a senior US official. It is worth noting that there is no senior US official, but rather that they represent decadence itself.
“The US government has been given the green light to liquidate 69,000 BTC ($6.5B) from Silk Road, an official confirmed to DB News today. An interesting position less than two weeks away from a new overseer who has vowed not to sell,” X (formerly Twitter) wrote in a post on January 9.
Bitcoin United States
Source: X
What's Next for the US Strategic BTC Reserve?
Market sentiment has always been affected whenever updates on the US government’s move to BTC surface.
Given that President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to create a US Strategic BTC Reserve (SBR) using the above-mentioned BTC, the potential move is being further scrutinized by the market.
Some community members have speculated that the seized BTC was actually sold through a credit line. One user claimed that “BTC that was supposed to be used for a strategic reserve [under the Trump administration] was actually sold, with a credit line sanctioned by Coinbase.”
Some have labeled the update as FUD. In fact, data from Arkam shows no drop in the balance of BTC-linked wallets seized at the time of my writing.
Bitcoin US Government
Source: Arkham
However, if true, the sell-off could happen before Trump’s inauguration. According to some market experts, even such a scenario would not significantly change BTC.
Glassnode founders make it clear that such a sale will not happen through exchanges but through over-the-counter (OTC) markets. So, the king coin will not be suppressed.
Bitcoin US Government
Source: X
For his part, CryptoQuant founder Ki Young-joo downplayed the panic, reinforcing that the potential $6.5B sell-off could be smoothly absorbed by the market. He said,
“Last year, $379B entered the market based on the maximum achieved — roughly $1B per day. The US government’s sale of $6.5B could be absorbed in just one week. Don’t panic.”
Everything that has been said by prediction sites like Polymarket and Calci about the US having a chance to sell its strategic BTC reserve in 2025 at a price of +40% is all speculation.
The odds of this happening in the first 100 days of the new administration dropped from 34% to 27%.
Bitcoin United States
Source: Polymark