The US government reportedly sold 85% of its pre-Trump Bitcoin holdings

New FOIA documents show that the US government currently owns 28,988 Bit, accounting for only 15% of the estimated total. This revelation immediately raised concerns about a large Dump under President Biden.

Technically, federal agencies still hold 200,000 BTC, but these assets are not government property. For example, up to 48% of this amount may be returned to Bitfinex creditors. This will certainly affect Trump's Reserve plan.

How Many Bitcoin Does the US Own?

At this point, everyone knows that years of asset seizures have made the US government one of the largest Bitcoin holders.

However, a new report suggests that this story may not be so simple. Today, the US Marshals Service confirmed that they only hold 28,988 BTC, accounting for only 15% of the total. Instead of $24 billion, this amount is only worth $3.47 billion.

Naturally, this revelation caused great panic in the cryptocurrency community. Last year was a terrible year for government Bitcoin liquidation worldwide, and President Biden has sold most of the US reserves.

Immediately, people like Senator Cynthia Lummis publicly questioned whether a large secret sale had occurred.

Clearly, the disaster scenario does not seem particularly feasible. Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain chain analysis company, keeps records of the US government's Bitcoin.

Internal transactions may or may not have caused the 200,000 figure to be a slightly excessive estimate, but we will know if Biden has sold 85% of the government's BTC.

Seized Assets and Forfeited Assets: An Important Difference

However, this difference is still extremely important. As the report's author pointed out, the US Marshals Service holds all government-seized Bitcoin.

Over the years, many large cryptocurrency criminals have forfeited billions of BTC, officially turning these assets into government property. This is the $3.4 billion mentioned, and the US government can do whatever they want with it.

However, many criminals did not forfeit their Bitcoin to the US government. These are forfeited assets, not government assets. The President does not necessarily have the right to do anything with these Tokens while they are in this ambiguous state.

For example, law enforcement holds billions of BTC from the Bitfinex hack, totaling about 94,000 BTC. Depending on some factors, most or all of these assets may be returned to the exchange's creditors.

If that happens, that's nearly half of the government's "reserve" right there.

Overall, Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve will not work as advertised. The FBI, DEA, and other government agencies are currently holding a lot of Bitcoin, but the US does not necessarily own it.

In general, observers can expect the Reserve to hold more than $3.4 billion, but it is much less than the original $24 billion that the government would handle if there were no Dump.