Speculation Over US Government Selling Off Bitcoin
• Rumors circulated Wednesday that the US government was selling off thousands of its Bitcoin holdings.
• Transactions labeled as “Gov: DOJ Confiscated funds” seemed to confirm speculation, but it was later revealed to be a user mistake.
• The US government did sell off more than 9,800 Bitcoin connected to the Silk Road for $215 million at the beginning of March and will sell 41,500 more Bitcoin in four batches this year.
Rumors of US Government Holding Bitcoins
On Wednesday, rumors began circulating that the US government may have been selling thousands of its Bitcoin holdings from an address labeled as “Gov: DOJ Confiscated funds”. Research director at The Block Steven (@Dogetoshi) tweeted about finding the transaction and speculation spread quickly on whether or not it was actually true.
User Mistake Causes Speculation
However, it was soon revealed that this wasn’t what caused the sudden drop in prices and instead it was a user mistake. Crypto veteran Adam Cochran said a user had mistakenly tagged their own wallet as Silkroad which then alerted them and they forgot it was manual rather than automatic tagging.
US Government Has Sold Off Bitcoin Before
This wouldn’t have been the first time that the US government sold off large amounts of its Bitcoin holdings either. In March, they sold off more than 9,800 Bitcoins connected to Silk Road for around 215 million dollars and plan on selling another 41,500 in four batches this year according to Blockworks news site.
Conclusion
Overall, while there is still no confirmation that the US government is selling its Bitcoin holdings or if any other news is lurking out there causing prices to drop suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, we do know that they have sold off large amounts before for hundreds of millions of dollars and are planning to do so again this year in multiple batches.