The United States government is in the process of liquidating more than 41,000 Bitcoin seized as part of their case against Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht. A filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 31 showed that authorities had begun liquidating the remaining 51,352 BTC seized from Ulbricht.
As of March 14, 9,861 BTC were sold for more than $215 million, leaving approximately 41,491 BTC to be liquidated in four batches over the course of 2021. The filing noted that this process is expected to take place throughout the year.
According to the latest court documents, the US government is planning to auction off 41,500 Bitcoin that are related to the now-defunct online black market Silk Road.
The US District Court for the Southern District of New York filed a report on March 31, outlining the sentencing of James Zhong. According to this filing, the US government had instructed the liquidation of approximately 51,352 Bitcoin (BTC) seized in connection with the Ulbricht case. It is reported that on March 14, authorities sold almost 9,861 BTC for over $215 million, leaving an estimated 41,491 BTC
According to a court filing, the Government is expecting four more batches of Bitcoin seized from Zhong to be liquidated over the course of this calendar year. Furthermore, IRS Criminal Investigation – Asset Recovery & Investigative Services have indicated that the second round of liquidation will not take place prior to Zhong’s sentencing date.
In November 2021, Zhong pled guilty to wire fraud charges associated with the 2012 theft of Bitcoin from Silk Road. At the time, U.S. federal agents seized over 50,000 BTC — worth over $3 billion — from his residence in Georgia. This was one of the most considerable crypto confiscations made by the government until February 2022, when they retrieved nearly $3.6 billion connected to the 2016 Bitfinex hack.
Silk Road, which has been inactive for a decade, formerly permitted users to acquire and trade illegal commodities such as weapons and stolen credit card information. The platform drew the attention of U.S. law enforcement agencies, resulting in the detention of Ross Ulbricht in 2013. He is presently serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
On March 10, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $20,000, while on March 29 it rose above $29,000. At present, BTC is trading at a price of $28,378, which shows its highly volatile nature over the past month.
