Everything must go – In November 2022, the Department of Justice of the United States reported that he had seized more than 50,000 bitcoins that once belonged to the Darknet black market called Silk Road. After a recent first sale of part of these BTC, the American authorities seem to want liquidate the tens of thousands of bitcoins remaining to him during this year 2023.
US dumps almost 10,000 BTC from Silk Road
Black market Silk Roadwhich operated on the Dark Web, was permanently farm by the FBI in October 2013. However, it was more recently, in November 2021, that the UNITED STATES got their hands on bitcoins from this dark marketplace.
According to a court document filed in the Court of the Southern District of New York, it would be a total bonanza of 51,351 BTC that the USA would have seized James Zhong. Individual who would have obtained all these crypto-assets himself by subtracting them from Silk Road. At the current price of BTC ($28,000), this is more than $1.4 billion.
But it turns out that the American authorities would have already separated from 9,861 BTCon March 14, 2023, for $215.5 million. They would have sold them a priori via the cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase. Just over $215,700 in fees were reportedly paid for this sale.
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Total liquidation: 41,490 bitcoins are still for sale
We also learn in this document that the 41,490.72 BTC (very precisely) remaining in the wallets of American justice are also destined to be sold fairly quickly, during 2023 :
” (…) the government [des États-Unis] hopes liquidated in four additional batches [les bitcoins restants] during that calendar year. (…) The second series of liquidations [des BTC] will not occur before the date of the award of [James] Zhong. »
However, the judgement by James Zhong should just take place soon, on Friday April 14 2023. After this date, it is therefore very likely thatten thousand bitcoins (more or less) or again be liquidated by the USA.
Between the sales of these BTCs from Silk Road, and those of bitcoins from the defunct Mt.Gox exchange – finally recovered by users after nearly a decade of waiting – the prices of the king of cryptocurrencies could be affected (on the decline). It remains to be seen in what conditions they are sold (and at what rate) to limit the impact on the crypto market.
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