9,800 BTC moved from Silk Road

Across several transactions, wallets affiliated with the government moved more than 9824 BTC (~$300 million at the time of writing).

According to on-chain data, on July 12, DOJ-owned addresses, in a series of transactions sent 8200 BTC (~$250 million) and 1118 BTC (~$34 million) to two unidentified wallets.

Another 506 BTC (~$15.5 million) were moved to another unknown address. Later the cryptocurrency was distributed across several new wallets. According to PeckShield, 158 BTC (~$4.86 million) were deposited on the Binance exchange.

In March 2023, the U.S. government sold 9861 BTC for $215 million. This was only part of the confiscated assets — the remaining 41 491 BTC at the time were planned to be liquidated in four batches over the course of the year.

In 2015, a court found the founder of the marketplace Ross Ulbricht guilty of running the darknet marketplace and other crimes, including drug trafficking and conspiracy to launder funds. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In November 2020, the U.S. DOJ confiscated Silk Road-linked 69 370 BTC. According to court documents, the address owner under the pseudonym Invididual X hacked the marketplace and stole the funds.

On November 9, 2021, law enforcement conducted raids at the home of U.S. citizen James Zhong. They seized about 50 676 BTC (~$3.36 billion at the time), $661 900 in cash and precious-metal bars. In March 2022 he voluntarily handed over to authorities more than 1004 BTC, to which he had access.

Subsequently Zhong pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining 50,000 BTC on the Silk Road darknet marketplace. According to case materials, in September 2012 the defendant carried out a fraudulent scheme using fake accounts, not listing or purchasing any goods or services on the platform.

In April 2023, the American was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.

Analysts at Dune described the U.S. government as ‘one of the biggest Bitcoin whales’. According to them, the total stock of the first cryptocurrency held by the authorities stands at 205 515 BTC (~$5.8 billion at the time of writing).