Simply by taking money that was gained unlawfully over the past few years, the US government has become one of the biggest Bitcoin whales. So, how much bitcoin does the US government own?
How Much Bitcoin Does The US Government Own?
The amount of Bitcoin owned by the US government is massive.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) declared that it has taken control of just over 50,676.17 BTC from James Zhong, a Bitcoin trader, in November 2021. Zhong got the money by cheating the darknet marketplace Silk Road in September 2012 by abusing the platform's nature with; he admitted to one count of wire fraud.
In addition to the 50,676 BTC seized from Zhong, the US government has already acquired at the very least 163,370 BTC over the last two years, for a grand total of 214,046 BTC, or about $4.43 billion, minimum.
In November 2020, the DOJ captured 69,370 BTC (worth over $1.4 billion today) from another Silk Road user, publicized as “Individual X” by the department. At the time, this was the network's fourth-largest Bitcoin address; the seizure officially made the US government one of the biggest Bitcoin whales in the world.
The agency also seized over 94,000 BTC from Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein, claiming the couple was inspired to launder proceeds from the crypto exchange Bitfinex's infamous hack in 2016. The sum, worth $3.6 billion at the time, is now worth over $1.9 billion.
Owning 214,046 BTC makes the US government a hugely large Bitcoin whale. Only one BTC wallet, identified as Binance's cold storage wallet, includes a larger amount, 252,597 BTC, and BitInfoCharts claims that these user profits of BTC are undoubtedly itself.
However, because whales are likely to distribute their holdings over several wallets, looking for the biggest BTC wallets does not provide the whole picture. For instance, Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious person who invented Bitcoin, owns more than 1.1 million BTC, but the sum is dispersed among 22,000 various wallets.
conclusion
Is the US government the biggest Bitcoin whale besides Satoshi? It's difficult to say, but it undoubtedly contains more than Michael Saylor, who is Bitcoin's most vocal supporter. Saylor was able to amass over 130,000 BTC over the past two years with his firm, soft Microstrategy.
How Much Bitcoin Does The US Government Own? Well, I think now you know the answer.
