CryptoQuant: US government holds 210k Bitcoins with $14.4b unrealized profit

The U.S. government’s holdings of 210,392 BTC worth $14.4 billion make the country one of the largest holders of the coin.

The head of CryptoQuant, Ki Young Ju, noted that the U.S. Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, and other departments have not sold a single Bitcoin (BTC) since July 2023. The government’s unrealized profits increased 2.4 times.

At the same time, Arkham platform analysts have different data. They reported that the address, which allegedly belongs to the U.S. authorities, stores 215,245 BTC, which amounts to about $14.8 billion at the time of writing.

In addition to Bitcoin, the wallet holds 50,147 Ethereum (ETH), 10.14 million USD Coin (USDC), 5.36 million Dai (DAI), and 2.27 million Tether (USDT).

Some government wallets are public, and the crypto community is closely monitoring them, fearing the negative impact of a one-time sale of many coins on the global crypto market, whose total capitalization is estimated at more than $2.5 trillion.

In March 2023, the U.S. transferred BTC confiscated from the Silk Road hacker to Coinbase. In April, the government sold another 9,861 BTC. Then, in January, government officials announced their intention to sell some of the cryptocurrency associated with the Silk Road case. The statement mentioned assets of 2,934 BTC.

In February, the U.S. government transferred another 15,085 BTC seized after the hacked Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange. The U.S. government confiscated funds from the platform in 2016 after hacker Ilya Lichtenstein stole about $4.5 billion from Bitfinex.