According to ChainCatcher news and reports from CoinDesk, concerns about the U.S. Department of Justice potentially liquidating 69,370 Silk Road bitcoins (about $6.5 billion) have been exaggerated. Analysts point out three key reasons:
Although 69,370 bitcoins is a large quantity, the government must follow optimal pricing principles during the liquidation process, and it is expected to proceed in an orderly and phased manner. Meanwhile, the market has already anticipated this possibility, and the related impacts have been partially absorbed.
From the perspective of market absorption capacity, since September 2024, the holdings of long-term holders (those holding for more than 155 days) have decreased by more than 1 million bitcoins, with current total holdings of approximately 13.1 million bitcoins. Despite such a large-scale sell-off, the price of bitcoin has risen from $60,000 to over $100,000, indicating strong market demand.
The German government completed the sale of approximately 50,000 bitcoins (about $3.5 billion) between June and July 2023, providing an important reference for similar-scale liquidations. The market had already bottomed out when the German government still held 25,000 bitcoins, indicating that such a scale of sell-off is insufficient to dominate market trends.
