The DOJ has been green-flagged to sell 69,370 BTC that it seized from darknet marketplace Silk Road.
Background
- 'Silk Road' is deemed to be crypto's largest-ever federal seizure
- A year-long ownership dispute over the seized Bitcoin wrapped up after Battle Born Investments lost its bid to delay the sale
- The group had apparently claimed ownership via a bankruptcy estate
- A related Freedom of Information Act [FOlA] case seeking to reveal the identity of "Individual X" who originally surrendered the Bitcoin did not go in its favor
Why should you pay attention?
- The timing of the latest decision seems to be interesting because the administration in the US is on the cusp of changing
- Trump has time and again stated that he'd not sell any Bitcoin holdings
- Meanwhile, the DOJ cited BTC's price volatility when it sought permission to sell the assets
- When asked about the next steps, a DOJ spokesperson affirmed that the government would proceed further “consistent with the judgment” in this case
- The seized assets are worth approximately $6.5 billion
Who said what?
- An official reportedly confirmed,
“The US Govt has been given the green light to liquidate 69,000 BTC ($6.5 billion) from Silk Road”
- Battle Born's attorney reportedly labeled this case to be "another egregious example of the DOJ’s abuse of the Civil Asset Forfeiture process”
- Furthermore, the attorney contested that the government "relied on procedural trickery to make sure the facts are never heard”
Zooming out
- Several stalwarts from the community rationalized why market participants shouldn’t give-in to panic
- BTC, on its part, has been in its correction phase of late
- At press time, the asset was seen exchanging hands at $93.6k
