Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that the U.S. Justice Department currently holds approximately 29,000 Bitcoins (worth about $3.44 billion), a quantity that is nearly 90% less than the previously disclosed 200,000 Bitcoins, raising market speculation about whether the U.S. government is quietly selling off Bitcoins.
However, it should be noted that the data from the Justice Department does not represent the total Bitcoin holdings of the U.S. government: the Justice Department primarily manages 'forfeited assets' (legally owned by the government and can be auctioned), while 'seized assets' (temporarily detained during investigation and not yet completed legal procedures, hence cannot be sold) may be held by other law enforcement agencies. For instance, the 94,000 Bitcoins tracked by Arkham from the Bitfinex hacker incident fall into this category and cannot be sold for the time being.
The discussion on whether to sell is still ongoing: some believe that the U.S. government may conduct 'offline transactions' through custodians (such as Coinbase), which would not have on-chain records, thus making on-chain tracking potentially ineffective.
From a strategic perspective, Trump once planned to establish a 'strategic Bitcoin reserve,' requiring federal agencies to transfer cryptocurrency assets to the Treasury; some senators expressed shock at the significant reduction in holdings, believing it to be a strategic mistake. There are also views suggesting that the reduction in holdings may explain the stagnation of Bitcoin prices in the past, or even signal a bullish trend—if the U.S. government needs to repurchase to replenish reserves, it could affect market liquidity.
In summary, this data has become a key variable in the market, shifting from a potential maximum selling pressure to a possible replenishment force; the impact of this role reversal may be more profound than the data controversy.
