The U.S. government approved the sale of 69,370 BTC seized from the Silk Road marketplace less than two weeks before Trump’s inauguration. How did it become possible? Will the sale actually take place? How does the community react to the news?
The Northern District Court of California approved the liquidation of the bitcoins seized from the Silk Road marketplace in November 2020, years after the black market shut down. The decision concludes the four-year-long legal battle over the future of the seized crypto.
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How did the approval become possible?
One of the key shifts in the legal battle took place on Dec. 30, 2024, when Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg denied a motion to block the forfeiture of the seized bitcoins. The move made it possible for the Department of Justice to liquidate the bitcoin associated with Silk Road.
Does it mean that the bitcoins are about to be sold? No. The possible appeal and a series of administrative steps are in the way, so it’s hard to say when exactly the sale can take place if it happens at all.
Although the Silk Road black market was shut down back in 2013. The black market’s wallet was hacked. It was not until 2020 that the person holding over 69.3k bitcoins associated with the marketplace agreed to release these funds to the government.
One of the entities fighting to get these bitcoins was the Battle Born Investments company, however, in October 2024 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take on a case, paving the way for the sale approval that made headlines on Jan. 9, 2024.
The political subtext
Last year, during the Nashville Bitcoin conference, Donald Trump promised that the USA would never sell bitcoins. He said that if he gets elected, the administration will “keep 100% of all the bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds or acquires into the future.” Trump promised tha
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Author: Alexey Borovets
