The US District Court docket for the Northern District of California has signed off on the US authorities’s liquidation of 69,370 bitcoins (BTC) seized from “Individual X” related to Ross Ulbricht’s Silk Street. That judicial ruling denies Battle Born Investments Firm’s bid to dam the sale.
Nonetheless, the timing of the information prompted widespread confusion throughout the crypto neighborhood. In precise reality, the ruling occurred final month: on December 30, 2024 and was made public that very same day on the digital, nationwide, Public Entry to Court docket Digital Data (PACER) system.
Nonetheless, the ruling didn’t imply the federal government really bought that BTC. The newsworthy prevalence was merely that one decide had granted permission. Precise sale of seized proceeds of crime by US regulation enforcement requires further, administrative steps.
The US authorities’s pockets nonetheless accommodates these 69,370 BTC. Simply verifiable on-chain, it’s clear that regulation enforcement officers haven’t bought these cash.
Some observers speculated that the Justice Division (DoJ) might promote the BTC earlier than the presidential inauguration on January 20. Nonetheless, that doesn’t imply that the sale of the Silk Street BTC will occur imminently.
The DoJ, which holds the seized BTC, nonetheless has administrative procedures to observe earlier than transferring or promoting the cash.
The headline that triggered the information cycle concerning the cash was a put up by DB Information that earned 4.8 million views on X. Printed at 9:08pm New York time, the put up summarized data from an earlier article by Decrypt and elsewhere that coincided with the value of BTC dropping from $94,900 at 9:06pm to $93,439 by 9:12pm.
That was a 1.5% crash and $27 billion lack of market capitalization inside six minutes.
Learn extra: Supreme Court docket gained’t cease sale of 69,370 Silk Street bitcoins
The bitcoin from Silk Street’s ‘Individual X’
The BTC in query, which is price greater than $6 billion, arrived in US custody after the FBI and DoJ seized belongings from somebody listed in court docket paperwork as “Individual X.” Particular person X allegedly stole the BTC from Silk Street.
The plaintiff on this case that had paused the liquidation of those belongings, Battle Born Investments Firm, was pursuing a Freedom of Data Act (FOIA) request to disclose this particular person’s title.
Battle Born Investments Firm claims possession of the BTC. It claims it acquired the 69,370 cash from a chapter property related to Raymond Ngan, whom it suspects is Particular person X.
The federal government denied Battle Born Investments Firm’s FOIA request, making it unattainable for it to publicly affirm its suspicions about Ngan.
The US authorities has periodically bought BTC associated to different Silk Street instances. Certainly, it moved 2,000 cash to a Coinbase pockets in March 2024, a couple of months earlier than the US Marshals Service confirmed that Coinbase would offer custody service for the BTC in its coffers.
US Marshals additionally bought a separate 9,861.17 BTC in March 2023.
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