US Department of Justice’s Bitcoin Purge Continues to Rock Markets

The US government has approved the sale of 69,370 $BTC seized from the Silk Road marketplace less than two weeks before Trump’s inauguration.

Although the Silk Road black market was shut down in 2013, the black market’s wallet was hacked. The individual who held more than 69.3 thousand bitcoins associated with the marketplace waited until 2020 to agree to give the funds to the government.

One of the organizations that fought to seize these bitcoins was Battle Born Investments, but the US Supreme Court declined to take up the case in October 2024, paving the way for the sale that made headlines on January 9, 2024.

The hoard of bitcoins, worth an estimated $6.5 billion, has been at the center of a lengthy legal battle, and news of the sale has added further uncertainty to the market.

On Dec. 30, a federal court rejected claims from Battle Born Investments, a company that had sought ownership of Bitcoin through bankruptcy. The court’s ruling cleared the way for the DOJ to proceed with the sale. The U.S. Marshals Service will oversee the sale, which is expected to be one of the largest crypto asset liquidations in history.

The ruling comes after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal challenging the seizure of Bitcoin in October. Battle Born had also initially attempted to use a Freedom of Information Act request to identify “Individual X,” the person who delivered the Bitcoin. However, those efforts were unsuccessful, ending further legal challenges.

The timing of the sale, planned ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, has raised suspicions among investors. Some speculate that the proceeds could be directed to aid Ukraine, in line with President Biden’s foreign policy priorities.