Transparency may be a feature that’s baked into the blockchain, but it doesn’t seem to be carrying over into the US government’s Bitcoin accounting.
On Thursday, Senator Cynthia Lummis, a longtime Bitcoin advocate and co-author of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill, expressed alarm over recent reports that the US may not hold as many Bitcoins as previously thought.
“If true, this is a total strategic blunder and sets the United States back years in the Bitcoin race,” she wrote on X.
But her surprise raised an obvious question: shouldn’t she already know?
After all, she has been one of the loudest voices demanding that the government should establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, having even introduced bills to that effect.
Back in March, it seemed like she would get her wish granted when the White House established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve via executive order, aiming to consolidate all forfeited Bitcoin held by the government.
At the time, David Sacks, President Trump’s crypto czar, said the government was estimated to own around 200,000 Bitcoin, though he acknowledged a full audit had never been done.
Those coins, he said, would form the foundation of a new long-term sovereign store of value and would not be sold, akin to a “digital Fort Knox”.
Counting coins
But a new Freedom of Information Act response obtained by an independent journalist who goes by the X handle L0la L33tz suggests the government may hold far less than expected.
According to data provided by the US Marshals Service, which tends to manage forfeited assets, the government holds just 28,988 Bitcoins, worth around $3.4 billion.
That’s roughly 15% of the amount Sacks suggested.
Onchain analytics platforms like Arkham Intelligence track wallets believed to be government-linked, estimating total holdings closer to 200,000 Bitcoin. But those numbers may not tell the whole story.
L33tz, who obtained the FOIA documents, cautioned that most public trackers fail to distinguish between seized and forfeited Bitcoin.
Only forfeited assets, they noted, are officially property of the US government and eligible for inclusion in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Seized coins may still be tied up in legal proceedings and remain under the custody of agencies like the FBI or DEA.
“To the geniuses that have linked Arkham’s gov wallet tracker,” L33tz wrote, “these do not seem to be Bitcoins that have been made the Gov’s property — at least not exclusively — which means they can’t sell them.”
Bitcoin Magazine chairman David Bailey added that Arkham’s figures may also be skewed by custodial activity.
“That doesn’t account for a custodian making intraledger transactions,” he wrote, referring to internal wallet movements that can inflate wallet-based estimates.
Kyle Baird is DL News’ Weekend Editor. Got a tip? Email at [email protected].
