The USG is Selling $2B Worth of Bitcoin

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Investing, Business

4.8 • 786 Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2024

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The outgoing administration doesn't seem keen on President-elect Trump's Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, as they prepare to sell billions worth of seized BTC during the lame duck session. Enjoying this content? SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast: https://pod.link/1438693620 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto Subscribe to the newsletter: https://breakdown.beehiiv.com/ Join the discussion: https://discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8 Follow on Twitter: NLW: https://twitter.com/nlw Breakdown: https://twitter.com/BreakdownNLW

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.
0:09.3	It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.
0:18.5	What's going on, guys? It is Tuesday, December 3rd, and today we are talking about the U.S.
0:24.1	government selling its Bitcoin. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown,
0:28.9	please go subscribe to it, give it a reading, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into
0:32.5	the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes
0:36.1	are going to bit.ly slash breakdown pod. Well, friends, the U.S. government appears to be selling another tranche of Bitcoin.
0:42.4	According to on-chain data from Arkham Analytics, the government sent 19,800 Bitcoin
0:47.4	to Coinbase worth around $2 billion. The funds were part of a seizure from Silk Road hacker
0:52.2	James Zong in 2022, totaling 50,000 BTC.
0:56.0	The government obtained a court order allowing them to liquidate the Bitcoin earlier this year.
0:59.9	Since the U.S. Marshal Service signed a deal with Coinbase custody earlier this year,
1:03.6	it's become a lot more confusing to figure out what the government is doing with their Bitcoin.
1:07.8	Half of this transaction appears to have been deposited with Coinbase Prime,
1:15.3	with the other going to a fresh wallet address presumed to be Coinbase custody. Finance lawyer,
1:18.3	Scott Johnson, has pointed out that the custody agreement requires the government Bitcoin to be stored in a segregated account at all times. Coinbase Prime doesn't fit that
1:22.5	description, so in Johnson's opinion, the government is, quote, selling or sold already.
1:26.8	On-chain analyst, Sonny has been tracking the legal status of the government's roughly $18.5
1:30.7	billion worth of Bitcoin. After selling 10,000 BTC yesterday, he believes there's another
1:35.3	60,000 Bitcoin the government is currently allowed to sell, worth roughly $6 billion.
1:39.3	Notably, this doesn't include any of the Bitcoin Cs from thefinex hackers, some $9 billion worth.
1:47.8	Bitfinex will presumably mount a legal challenge to force those assets to be returned,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Blockworks, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Blockworks and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.