The U.S. government does not hold 198,012 BTC. It holds exactly 28,988.35643016 BTC. That’s it. This number comes straight from the U.S. Marshals Service, which confirmed it in writing.
The confirmation came in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on March 24 by a journalist with the X handle, L0la L33tz.
This is the first time we’ve gotten a fully documented breakdown (an actual spreadsheet, sorted by case) of what the U.S. Marshals are holding. As of now, that stash of Bitcoin is worth roughly $3.44 billion, based on Bitcoin trading at around $118,700 per coin.
A letter dated July 15, sent by the Office of General Counsel, officially said that the records came from the Asset Forfeiture Division. Most of the details in the report are there, though a few lines were blacked out for “legal and security” reasons. But the BTC total was not redacted.
FOIA request blows up 200K BTC narrative
For years, crypto analysts and government critics pushed the idea that America held around 200,000 BTC. Arkham and others say the total might be closer to $25 billion, but that includes coins possibly seized by other agencies like the IRS or the FBI. Good luck trying to verify that. There’s no centralized database, and seizure operations are usually buried under layers of paperwork… or no paperwork at all.
Even David Sacks, the guy the White House put in charge of AI and crypto, said the same thing earlier this year. Meanwhile, L33tz added that a second FOIA request is already in the works. The goal? To verify if this current BTC stash is being managed through Coinbase Prime, which has reportedly handled government-seized crypto assets before.
Now here’s the thing: the Marshals Service has always been the agency that deals with seized crypto, meaning they store it, they manage it, and when the time is right, they auction it off.
The most famous case was the massive sale of 69,370 BTC that the Department of Justice was cleared to dump right before Donald Trump took office in January.
So, unless there’s been a private sale the government somehow forgot to announce, these numbers should be spot on. “U.S. Marshal Service liquidates assets in public auctions, so unless they announced a sale, this list should be accurate,” L33tz said.
Let’s not forget how we got here. The FOIA request literally asked for: “The amount of Bitcoin held by the U.S. Marshals Service.” That’s it.
Let that sink in.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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