In late 2024, a US court authorized the Justice Department to sell 69,370 bitcoins in “the largest cryptocurrency seizure in history.”
At bitcoin's current price, just under $92,000, these bitcoins are worth nearly $6.4 billion, and crypto shops report that DOJ officials have said they plan to continue selling the assets, in accordance with the court's order. The DOJ had reportedly argued that bitcoin's price volatility was a compelling reason to seek authorization for the sale.
Ars has contacted the DOJ for comment and will update the story with new information on next steps.
A hacker initially stole these bitcoins from Silk Road – an illegal online marketplace where goods could only be bought and sold with bitcoins – in 2012, shortly before the US government closed the market. The US discovered the stolen bitcoins later in 2020 while investigating Silk Road further, eventually obtaining a consent agreement from the hacker that year, who signed the bitcoins over to the government.
Whether the government's seizure of those bitcoins was proper is disputed by Battle Born Investments, a company that purchased the bankruptcy estate assets of a person they believed was the hacker whose bitcoins were seized or someone who was 'connected with him'.
After a lawsuit failed to return the bitcoins, Battle Born attempted to unmask the hacker through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, leading to another legal battle. But ultimately, the court agreed with the US government in late December that the hacker had a right to privacy as someone who was the subject of a criminal investigation and should not be exposed. That ended Battle Born's claim to the bitcoins and cleared the way for the government to sell it.
