A rumor is rapidly spreading among crypto investors that the US government may have quietly sold off nearly 170,000 BTC, leaving a fraction of its assumed holdings intact. The speculation began after the US Marshals Service, in response to a FOIA request, revealed that it currently holds only 28,988 BTC valued at approximately $3.4 billion.
Many crypto investors took this disclosure to mean that the federal government’s total Bitcoin reserves had declined from the long-assumed figure of around 200,000 BTC. The claim was amplified across the social media platform X, where even some public figures reacted to what appears to be a massive strategic sell-off by the US government.
FOIA Request Misinterpreted
The confusion of the US government selling the majority of its Bitcoin holdings appears to stem from misinterpretations of the specific holdings of the US Marshals Service with those of the entire federal government. The FOIA request that sparked the debate was submitted by journalist L0la L33tz, and it accurately reflects that the Marshals control just under 29,000 BTC. However, this only accounts for the Bitcoin under the custody of that particular agency.
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On-chain data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence provides a very different picture. According to Arkham, the US government as a whole still holds approximately 198,000 BTC, worth over $23.46 billion at the current price of Bitcoin. These coins are distributed across various federal agencies and are not limited to the Marshals’ holdings. Nevertheless, the misrepresentation took hold quickly.
Even US Senator Cynthia Lummis, who is a well-known advocate of Bitcoin, responded to the rumor, saying, “I’m alarmed by reports that the U.S. has sold off over 80% of its Bitcoin reserves, leaving just ~29,000 coins. If true, this is a total strategic blunder and sets the United States back years in the bitcoin race.”
What If the US Quietly Sold 170,000 BTC?
The repercussions on the broader crypto market would be immense if the US government had indeed sold off 170,000 BTC in secret. A sale of that scale would unleash massive selling pressure and cause a strong drop in the price of Bitcoin. This would erode confidence among investors in the wider crypto market and set off a chain reaction of liquidations across other cryptocurrencies. Such a move would not only cause technical breakdowns in price structure but also cancel out the possibility of governments around the world holding crypto as a form of strategic reserve.
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Moreover, such a dump would directly contradict the federal policy direction set earlier this year. In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing all federal agencies to transfer their Bitcoin and digital asset holdings to the US Treasury. The order formalized the creation of a Bitcoin reserve, which was meant to recognize the cryptocurrency as a national asset. In light of that policy, the notion that the US would quietly sell off the majority of its Bitcoin holdings seems highly improbable under the current Trump administration.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $118,360.
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