DOJ approved to sell $6.5 billion in Bitcoin from seized Silk Road assets

A federal judge approved the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to sell $6.5 billion in Bitcoin acquired from the Silk Road marketplace. Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg rejected a motion to prevent the forfeiture of 69,370 Bitcoin, allowing the Department of Justice to proceed with selling the assets, as stated in a court filing.

The approval comes just shy of two weeks before the new administrator, who pledged not to sell the seized Bitcoin, takes office. The DOJ had cited Bitcoin price volatility as the reason for its need for a rushed sale of the assets. 

Judge approves Bitcoin sale, rejects Battle Born’s Bid to unmask ‘Individual X’

On December 30, a federal judge granted the DOJ’s request to liquidate 69,370 Bitcoin seized from Silk Road. However, with this approval, Battle Born Investments failed in its attempt to postpone the sale.

The document’s emergence this week remains unclear, and the DOJ has not made an official comment yet.

Battle Born had previously submitted a FOIA request to the DOJ, seeking the identity of  “Individual X,” who had signed a consent agreement for the forfeiture of seized Bitcoin from Silk Road before filing a lawsuit in court.

However, in its ruling, the court found that DOJ had followed the correct procedures in invoking FOIA Exemption 7(c) to conceal Individual X’s identity. The court highlighted that the holder had compelling reasons to maintain anonymity, especially since the seized assets were tied to criminal activity.

Battle Born Investments even contended that disclosing the identity was in the public’s interest and vital to maintaining transparency and accountability concerning government actions; nevertheless, the court concluded that Individual X’s privacy rights took precedence over that. 

Additionally, the court insisted that Battle Born failed to provide enough evidence to prove any government misconduct in protecting the identity of “Individual X”.

Battle Born believes the DOJ used procedural trickery to hide the case’s facts

Battle Born legal team is still displeased with the outcome of the case. Battle Born’s attorney even called the case “another egregious example of the DOJ’s abuse of the Civil Asset Forfeiture Process,” claiming the agency used “ procedural trickery” to conceal the truth.

Nonetheless, the US Marshals Service is anticipated to oversee the liquidation, which will mark one of the largest sales of confiscated cryptocurrency to date. However, the court’s approval to sell the seized Bitcoin briefly impacted the market, causing Bitcoin to dip from about $95,000 to $93,800. It has since recovered slightly to $94,454.