HODL or Auction?
Some lawmakers in the United States have made it clear that they think the government should hoard this cryptocurrency for the long haul, hoping that its value will rise. Unfortunately, the United States began selling bitcoin as early as 2014, and statistics reveal that it isn’t very good at it.
His calculations put the government’s profit at $366 million, but with prices skyrocketing in the past few years, it might have lost out on $11.7 billion. A portion of Ross Ulbricht’s holdings—50,000 BTC—was liquidated in 2014 for $19 million. This very cryptocurrency would be worth about $3.1 billion right now. Oh no.
Federal agencies, law enforcement agencies that assist in apprehending criminals, and victims of crimes are the usual recipients of the money from transactions facilitated by the U.S. Marshals Service. The surplus is reinvested in the Treasury. It is now painfully evident that victims would have been better treated had liquidations occurred a few years later, even though American policymakers couldn’t have had a crystal ball then.
In March 2023, the government proceeded unfazed and sold 9,861 BTC associated with Silk Road for $215.5 million (after fees), or approximately $21,853 per coin. It had intended to sell off another 40,000 BTC in four separate batches the following year. Despite the movement of substantial Bitcoin, it appears that those transactions have not yet been executed. The U.S. central bank’s gold holdings, which are currently valued at over $600 billion, would start to rival the 210,000 BTC held by the United States by 2030 if Bitcoin continues to perform as it has in the past, according to a recent report by GlobalData Thematic Intelligence.
What About Other Countries?
Germany, the United Kingdom, and China all own over $20 billion worth of Bitcoin, and there has been rising concern that Berlin is about to stage some liquidations. Centralized exchanges now hold a significant amount of the Bitcoin that the European Union confiscated.
Fearing it would increase selling pressure and coincide with the impending delivery of Mt. Gox payouts to creditors, this has occasionally put a heavy strain on BTC’s spot price. In a surprising twist, the very governments that Bitcoin was designed to oppose may end up jeopardizing its short-term price performance.
