The US Government acquired 127,271 BTC (~$12B) tied to an international fraud scheme run by Cambodian national Chen Zhi,a recent Bitcoin seizures from criminals . This seizure would bring the US government's total to 325,283 BTC (worth over $37B). The Seized wealth from confiscated criminals assets have made the US as a country with the Largest Bitcoin portfolio in the world. The US govt have not sold a single Bitcoin but has continue to increase it's Bitcoin holdings over the years.They wouldn't be any need of selling the Golds to buy Bitcoin for the strategic Reserve. with this large Bitcoin holdings estimated over $37 billions dollars, The US will now have enough BTC to fund its National strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The wait is long over due.
While it is good that the US government has decided not to sell any Bitcoin it holds currently. This is a clear departure from the past administration, which constantly auctioned Bitcoin. But does it mean that the only means the US wants to build its reserve is through seizures? If this is the case, they might end up targeting some legitimate institutions because they want to keep stockpiling. I thought they should show commitment to keeping a Bitcoin reserve by investing in the sector.
But I am pleased that the US and UK governments were able to dismantle the scam network of the Cambodian business empire,
Prince Group. These scammers operated ten scam compounds which had about 1,250 mobile phones that controlled around 76,000 social media accounts. The recovered $14bn (£10.5bn) in bitcoin should be sent back to victims and not kept as reserve by the US.
It is crazy how countries are hitting the gold mine whenever they seized stolen stuffs like drugs, money, gold and Bitcoin, automatically it belongs to them but to me it feels like stealing.
Every fraud schemes leaves a trace behind, that's why they are able to caught these criminals, and when traces are left behind it means they can find the rightful owners of those Bitcoin if they want to, but suddenly they will turn it into their own because they found it? It's crazy.
I saw the tweet on X and the person said the US government somehow have a way of hacking through Bitcoin wallet, I don't believe it at first but the source is from a good hacker, a popular one, xzbtc or something, I don't remember the handle again.