US Govt Sale of $118M From Silk Road Hack Not a Concern: Experts Claim
U.S. to sell $118M in Silk Road Bitcoin; experts calm, noting it's small compared to Grayscale sales and U.S. total holdings.
The U.S. government plans to sell $118 million in Bitcoin seized from the Silk Road hack, but experts aren't worried. They're selling 2,934 BTC after sentencing Silk Road's Ryan Farace and his father for money laundering.
Some feared this sale might drop Bitcoin's price, but Steven Lubka of Swan Bitcoin says it's small compared to recent Grayscale Bitcoin Trust sales, where Grayscale sold 106,575 BTC, worth $4.2 billion, since becoming a spot Bitcoin ETF.
However, this government sale is also small compared to the total Bitcoin it holds, the sale will only be 1.5% of their overall 194,188 BTC holdings, which is still less than 1% of Bitcoin’s supply. They accumulated these from the seizure of Bitcoin during the Bitfinex hack, Silk Road, and seized some from hacker James Zhong.
41,000 BTC were to be sold in 2023, including this batch, and during the sales, the U.S. often auctions the Bitcoins. An example is Tim Draper's purchase of 30,000 BTC at the US government auction in 2014. Recently, they seem to prefer selling on exchanges, with 9,118 BTC sold on exchanges in March 2023.
