Did The US Government Dump 170,000 BTC? Marshals | Crypto News
A rumor is quickly spreading among crypto traders that the US authorities could have quietly bought off practically 170,000 BTC, leaving a fraction of its assumed holdings intact. The hypothesis started after the US Marshals Service, in response to a FOIA request, revealed that it at present holds only 28,988 BTC valued at roughly $3.4 billion.
Many crypto traders took this disclosure to imply that the federal authorities’s complete Bitcoin reserves had declined from the long-assumed determine of around 200,000 BTC. The declare was amplified across the social media platform X, where even some public figures reacted to what seems to be a large strategic sell-off by the US authorities.
FOIA Request Misinterpreted
The confusion of the US authorities promoting the bulk of its Bitcoin holdings seems to stem from misinterpretations of the particular holdings of the US Marshals Service with those of the whole federal authorities. The FOIA request that sparked the controversy was submitted by journalist L0la L33tz, and it precisely displays that the Marshals control just under 29,000 BTC. However, this only accounts for the Bitcoin under the custody of that specific company.
On-chain knowledge from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence gives a very totally different image. According to Arkham, the US authorities as a complete still holds roughly 198,000 BTC, value over $23.46 billion at the present price of Bitcoin. These cash are distributed across numerous federal businesses and aren’t restricted to the Marshals’ holdings. Nevertheless, the misrepresentation took maintain shortly.
Even US Senator Cynthia Lummis, who is a well-known advocate of Bitcoin, responded to the rumor, saying, “I’m alarmed by reports that the U.S. has sold off over 80% of its Bitcoin reserves, leaving just ~29,000 coins. If true, this is a total strategic blunder and sets the United States back years in the bitcoin race.”
What If the US Quietly Sold 170,000 BTC?
The repercussions on the broader crypto market could be immense if the US authorities had certainly bought off 170,000 BTC in secret. A sale of that scale would unleash large promoting strain and trigger a robust drop in the price of Bitcoin. This would erode confidence among traders in the broader crypto market and set off a chain response of liquidations across different cryptocurrencies. Such a transfer wouldn’t only trigger technical breakdowns in price construction but also cancel out the chance of governments around the world holding crypto as a kind of strategic reserve.
Moreover, such a dump would straight contradict the federal coverage direction set earlier this yr. In March, President Donald Trump signed an government order instructing all federal businesses to switch their Bitcoin and digital asset holdings to the US Treasury. The order formalized the creation of a Bitcoin reserve, which was meant to acknowledge the cryptocurrency as a national asset. In mild of that coverage, the notion that the US would quietly dump the bulk of its Bitcoin holdings appears extremely inconceivable under the present Trump administration.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $118,360.
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