The US authorities have seized 185,230 BTC through criminal investigations between 2014 and now, including an auction for 3,813 BTC that runs throughout February.
Let’s say, though, that the US Marshals held onto all of the Bitcoin seized over the past six years. Pretend they smartly sold them yesterday when the price of BTC hit $10,000 once more — they would’ve netted a groin-thumping $1.85 billion.
Instead, Hard Fork re-ran Lopp’s numbers to gauge the approximate price of each BTC auctioned by the US Marshals. As it turns out, it’s probable they’ve sold Bitcoins for just $818 each, on average.
So, Bitcoin sold by the US Marshals has earned them roughly $151 million, according to Lopp’s portal. If this is the case, it would indeed mean the US government has short-changed itself roughly $1.7 billion by refusing to hold.
