In accordance with knowledge from Galaxy Analysis, the US Treasury Division has been licensed to carry seized digital belongings throughout the “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” since March.
With the addition of belongings from the Prince Group investigation, the reserve grew by 64% in a single day. The US authorities’s Bitcoin holdings now surpass these of all establishments besides MicroStrategy.
Galaxy Analysis reported that this was the biggest asset seizure operation within the historical past of the US Division of Justice, seizing 127,271 Bitcoins (roughly $15 billion).
On the heart of the investigation is Chen Zhi, Chairman of Cambodia-based Prince Holding Group. Prosecutors allege Chen ran a large-scale felony community involving on-line unlawful actions, pressured labor camps, and funding scams generally known as “pig-butchering.” The illicit proceeds have been allegedly laundered by way of cryptocurrency mining corporations like Warp Knowledge (primarily based in Laos-Texas) and LuBian (primarily based in China).
LuBian made headlines in 2020 with a serious non-public key vulnerability (“Milk Unhappy”). This vulnerability resulted within the theft of 127,000 BTC. It is noteworthy that the pockets addresses listed within the DOJ’s newest indictment match these of LuBian.com, which was attacked because of weak encryption throughout this era.
In accordance with Galaxy’s evaluation, the Prince Group and LuBian weren’t two separate entities, however reasonably totally different branches of the identical felony group. The FBI seized keys to wallets personally managed by Chen, resulting in the invention of over 127,000 BTC. Chen is reportedly nonetheless at giant, however has been positioned on OFAC’s sanctions checklist.
This growth aligns with Washington’s new fiscal technique. An government order enacted in March stipulates that seized digital belongings be added to authorities reserves reasonably than offered. Thus, the US is positioning Bitcoin as a retailer of worth much like gold reserves, sustaining its standing as “digital gold.”
With the most recent seizure, the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is equal to roughly 3.5% of the nation’s gold holdings in greenback phrases. In accordance with a Galaxy Analysis report, “the US authorities is now the biggest holder of Bitcoin on this planet, apart from MicroStrategy.”
*This isn’t funding recommendation.
