Donald Trump made his key pro-crypto statements during the 2024 Nashville crypto conference. He notably said, “For too long our government has violated the cardinal rule that every bitcoiner knows by heart: Never sell your Bitcoin.” He repeated this when signing the law that created the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. In the past, the U.S. government sold at least 195,091.75 BTC for $366,493,104. Now these bitcoins are worth $22.2 billion while the country’s reserves are somewhere between 29,000 and 200,000 bitcoins.
Summary
- The U.S. is the country that sold the largest amount of bitcoins, from 195,000 to 199,000 units between 2014 and 2023
- Missed out gains from these sales amount to around $21 billion
- While it’s widely believed that the U.S. owns around 200,000 bitcoins, the official data confirms only 29,000. The rest of the bitcoins were confiscated from thieves and fraudsters and may be returned to the victims
U.S. Bitcoin sales 2014 – 2023
Until 2013, the U.S. didn’t have any bitcoins. The Drug Enforcement Administration obtained 11 bitcoins during the battle with the Silk Road marketplace. As the operation was finished, the amount of the U.S. Bitcoin holdings increased substantially, although part of the bitcoins associated with Silk Road were stolen.
In 2014, the U.S. government began to sell forfeited bitcoins through auctions. In June, the U.S. sold 29,657 bitcoins obtained from Silk Road to venture investor Tim Draper. He paid around $19 million. As of Aug. 5, 2025, these bitcoins cost over $3 billion.
Between December 2014 and November 2015, the U.S. sold 144,341 bitcoins forfeited from Silk Road at the $270–$380 price range (much cheaper than during the Draper purchase), gaining $47.1 million. At the press time, these bitcoins cost nearly $16.6 billion.
During the following auctions, the U.S. sold much smaller amounts of Bitcoin. Thanks to the long-term price appreciation of Bitcoin, the U.S. was gaining much higher returns in USD, selling much smaller amounts of Bitcoin. For instance, in August 2016, the government sold 2,719 BTC obtained from several sources, including the Silk Road drug dealer Matthew Gillum, for $1,600,000.
In March 2018, the U.S. gained $42,000,000 for selling 3,813 bitcoins, confiscated from various criminals. Later, the U.S. Marshals got rid of 2,170 bitcoins, mostly obtained from Shaun Bridges, a Secret Service agent who stole bitcoins forfeited during the Silk Road investigation. The bidders paid $18.7 million.
The last time the U.S. ever sold bitcoins publicly was March 2023, when the government sold 9,861 bitcoins obtained from James Zong, who stole them from the Silk Road marketplace. The government gained $215,000,000 (or lost around $900 million if we use the modern-day Bitcoin price). After this sale, the U.S. moved around 36,000 bitcoins in several transactions to Coinbase, but no selling was reported. Possibly, the transactions were made just to change the custodian.
How much BTC did the U.S. sell? Did any country sell more?
Reports on how much BTC the U.S. sold vary. Some name the amount of around 195,000 BTC, others name sales that amount to nearly 199,000 BTC. It means that at $114,000 per Bitcoin, the U.S. sold $22.2 billion and $22.6 billion worth of Bitcoin, gaining from $366.5 million to $422.2 million in return. Missed gains exceed $21 billion.
In 2024, Germany infamously sold 54,000 BTC at a price of around $57,900, not long before the BTC price doubled. It turned out, Germany missed out on around $3 billion–nowhere near the U.S.’s amount.
In 2021, Finland sold 1,900 BTC confiscated from drug crime. The government gained around $47 million. Most of this money was set for donations to Ukraine.
With over 10,000 BTC on its balance sheet, Bhutan is considered one of the top BTC holders among countries. However, the government is selling Bitcoin on occasion. However, these sales are much smaller than those done by the U.S. or Germany.
While we don’t know all the cases of countries selling Bitcoin, hardly any jurisdiction has sold as much as the U.S.
How much BTC does the U.S. own now?
Many use the Arkham Intelligence figures to evaluate the U.S. government’s cryptocurrency holdings. It analyzes and arranges blockchain data to display the crypto holdings of various big entities. According to Arkham, the U.S. now holds 198,022 BTC (over $22 billion as of Aug. 5, 2025), nearly 60,000 ETH (over $210 million as of Aug. 5, 2025), and many other cryptocurrencies with a valuation amounting to several hundred million dollars.
However, it is important to distinguish between “owning” and “holding.” Not all of the crypto assets held by the U.S. belong to the government. Forfeited assets are the government property, while seized assets are held by the U.S. as they serve as evidence of crime and may be returned to crime victims in the future.
For instance, 667.624 bitcoins seized from the founders of the fraud operation HashFlare in 2022 are not held by the U.S. Marshal Service. The same goes for a whopping 94,000 bitcoins seized from the Bitfinex hacker Ilya Lichtenstein. These seized assets may eventually land in the pockets of the victims of the HashFlare fraud and the Bitfinex hack. The Department of Justice has already recommended returning bitcoins stolen in the hack to Bitfinex.
According to the data obtained by the journalist Lola Leetz in July 2025, the U.S. Marshals hold nearly 29,000 bitcoins, much lower than the amount displayed on the Arkham website. It doesn’t mean that the U.S. sold the rest of the bitcoins (a frequent mistaken allegation repeated by many, including Sen. Cynthia Lummis). Rather, it means that the status and future of nearly 170,000 bitcoins are not clear, and it’s too early to claim that the U.S. actually owns them; it’s better to say the government keeps them for now.
Eugeniy Kitkin, chief business development officer at EMCD, clarifies that “seized bitcoins, on the other hand, are held temporarily — awaiting court decisions or legal resolutions. They are not yet the government’s property, and many may never be.”
Chief Analyst at MEXC Research, Shawn Young, adds that people need to understand the legal nuances better when it comes to strategic crypto holdings:
“For now, corporate accumulators like MicroStrategy remain the primary reserves of institutional BTC. These discrepancies highlight the need for clearer education to the public, focusing on how digital assets are treated within legal and institutional frameworks. Transparency is important, both in private and public sectors, to shape the future of BTC institutional adoption.”
