The government has started reselling significant spoils of war consisting of tens of thousands of bitcoins.
Has the United States found another way to attack cryptocurrencies? While Washington is putting pressure on the sector, and in particular on its most important players like Kraken or Binance, it is also starting to sell the very many bitcoins in its possession. To the point of playing on the course?
Nearly 10,000 bitcoins sold
Last November, the United States made an important announcement. They had indeed apprehended James Zhong, known for having succeeded in 2012 in stealing some 50,000 bitcoins from the famous anonymous sales platform on the Darknet Silk Road, by exploiting a security breach. A hoard which was worth at the time of the theft approximately 600,000 dollars, and 3.36 billion dollars at the time of its seizure in November 2021.
And the United States began to grow the treasury. We learn that on March 14, the US government sold 9,861.17 bitcoins, which earned it nearly 216 million euros. A movement of magnitude which at the time had no impact on the course, then still in full ascent.
This is just the beginning
And the federal authorities of the United States will not stop there, since the rest of the bitcoins resulting from this affair should also be exchanged for dollars. The 41,490 bitcoins still in their possession will indeed be resold during this calendar year through an operation divided into four tranches, according to the filing of a complaint that was able to consult Coindesk.
For the moment, this news has not caused any particular disturbance on the price of digital gold, which has continued for two weeks to stagnate around 28,000 dollars. But if ever one of the selling tranches of these cryptos were decided during a sharp decline, as Bitcoin has experienced quite a few, could it not accentuate the fall? And if so, would this not be a weapon of pressure in the hands of Washington?
Source : Coindesk
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