The US filed a civil complaint seeking the confiscation of $2.4 million in Bitcoin seized by the Dallas FBI, strengthening its proposed strategic Bitcoin reserve.
A civil complaint filed Thursday in the Northern District of Texas seeks the confiscation of 20.2 Bitcoin (BTC) seized from an address allegedly related to members of the Chaos Ransomware Group linked to the ransomware attack.
The Dallas FBI ran a code-fire on April 15th this year. It claims to be revenue from “illegal activities” related to ransomware attacks.
If the seizure is successful, Bitcoin could be added to the US Bitcoin Reserve. This is mandated by US President Donald Trump in his March 6 executive order and will be created through tokens seized through criminal or civil assets forfeiture.
sauce: Texas US Lawyers’ Office
Questions have been raised about US government Bitcoin Holdings
The US government owns 198,012 BTC of Bitcoin by Nansen, Arkham and Bitcoin Trays, and is estimated to have interfered with various seizures over the years. But the demand for freedom of information from independent journalists has recently raised this question.
A journalist who posted to X under the handle L0LA L33TZ said on July 16 that he received a response from the Department of Justice regarding his request for freedom of information that took place in March, revealing that US Marshall Services (USMS) is just over 28,988 bitcoins.
However, in a subsequent post, L0LA L33TZ said the shared figures didn’t take into account that “meaning there might be other custody offices,” such as the DEA and the FBI.
sauce: L0LA L33TZ
Blockchain analytics firm Arkham made a similar claim on July 23, noting that “other divisions of the US government are seizing and holding Bitcoin, including the FBI, DOJ, DEA and US lawyers’ offices.”
Arkham said the US government is not selling bitcoin
Arkham claims that the data shows that the US government holds at least 198,000 across multiple addresses held by different government weapons, with none moving for four months.
Source: Arkham
However, the L0LA L33TZ argued that some trackers “apparently do not distinguish between seized coins and confiscated coins.”
“To the genius who linked Arkham’s GOV wallet tracker: these seem to be BTC, at least not exclusive GoVS properties.
Related: Coinbase claims Secret Service’s “significant role” in the biggest cryptographic seizure ever
US states follow lawsuits
According to Bitcoin law, at least 30 US states have also implemented Bitcoin Strategy Preparation Act. However, as of July 29th, only Arizona, Texas and New Hampshire have passed relevant laws.
Dozens of people failed and were voted beyond the first committee stage by lawmakers.
magazine: Coinbase hack shows that the law probably doesn’t protect you: this is why
Discover more from Earlybirds Invest
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
