How true is the news that "U.S. Department of Justice approved the sale of Silk Road Bitcoin"?

On the morning of January 9, when the market was falling, major cryptocurrency media reported a piece of bad news, namely, "The U.S. Department of Justice approved the sale of $6.5 billion of seized dark web Silk Road bitcoins. As soon as the news came out, Bitcoin fell below $94,000.

When it rains, it pours. The industry is wailing. However, after Golden Finance verified the news, it was found that the source of the news was not credible. The reporter did not find any official news from the U.S. Department of Justice to confirm it. Even if the news is true, according to the past procedures of the Department of Justice to sell confiscated Bitcoins, the Department of Justice basically cannot sell these Bitcoins in the short term, that is, before Trump takes office. Trump has promised that the United States will not sell any Bitcoin during his presidency.

In summary, the U.S. Department of Justice will not actually sell coins at this stage, and it will not bring selling pressure to the market.

There is only one news source, and the official ruling states that "it will not be sold until the lawsuit is completed."

According to the sources of reports from major cryptocurrency media, the sources of the news they linked to were all messages released by a personal blogger named X.

The main body of this account is a news media in the cryptocurrency circle, but the media requires payment to browse its website, and the membership fee is not low.

Based on the above information, Golden Finance reporter believes that the credibility of the media is not high, and the short sentence posted by its X account, "The U.S. Department of Justice approved the sale of $6.5 billion in seized dark web Silk Road bitcoins," did not indicate a specific and reliable source and therefore cannot be verified.

According to the 20-cv-07811-RS document, it is not certain whether the United States will sell its bitcoins. Although the government won the previous civil forfeiture lawsuit against the various owners of the 69,000 bitcoins, the plaintiff filed a request for a stay of execution of the judgment and is waiting for the ruling of another Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The court is also pushing both parties to consider relevant regulations. Therefore, it is not certain whether the United States will immediately sell the bitcoins before these legal procedures are completed.

Even if the news is true, the Department of Justice will not be able to sell its Bitcoin in the short term.

Golden Finance reviewed and sorted out the U.S. Department of Justice's previous process of selling its confiscated bitcoins and found that even if the news was true, the Department of Justice would basically not be able to sell the bitcoins in its hands before Trump took office.

Bitcoin seized by the U.S. Department of Justice is usually auctioned off by the U.S. Marshals Service, rather than sold directly on OTC or exchanges. This is similar to how our judicial department auctions off seized assets such as houses and collections and then pays them to the national treasury.

Let’s take the 2020 Marshals Service auction process as an example, when approximately 4,040 bitcoins were auctioned off for various federal criminal, civil, and administrative cases.

At that time, the news that the Marshals Service would auction these bitcoins was released on February 3, 2020, requiring potential bidders to complete registration before February 12, and the auction was held on February 18.

According to the specific sales terms published by the Marshals Service at the time, the winning bidder should be prepared to wire the purchase funds to USMS on February 19, 2020. USMS will not transfer any Bitcoin until it confirms receipt of the buyer's purchase funds.

That is to say, it took more than half a month from the release of the news to the actual holding of the auction, for the auctioneer to actually get the bitcoins, and possibly sell them on the market.

Now, there are only 11 days left before Trump takes office, and Golden Finance reporters have not found any news about the recent auction of confiscated Bitcoins on the official website of the Marshals Service.

It can be seen that before Trump took office, at least the US Department of Justice would not actually sell the bitcoins it confiscated from Silk Road.

In summary, the news that was widely circulated this morning and affected the market, "The U.S. Department of Justice approved the sale of $6.5 billion of seized dark web Silk Road bitcoins," is most likely false news.