A popular on-chain analyst thinks the US government will eventually return nearly 100,000 seized Bitcoin (BTC) to their rightful owners.
Late last month, former President Donald Trump said in the Bitcoin2024 Conference that his administration will keep “100% of all the Bitcoin the US government currently holds or acquires into the future.”
But analyst Willy Woo tells his 1.1 million followers on the social media platform X that Trump’s plan is impossible because about half of the US government’s Bitcoin stockpile belongs to the crypto exchange Bitfinex.
“I keep hearing about 200,000 BTC owned by the US Government. 96,000 BTC is from the Bitfinex hack. After due process, I would expect those stolen funds to be returned to Bitfinex.”
In February of 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it seized and recovered more than 94,000 Bitcoin stolen during the 2016 Bitfinex hack.
Woo says he sees Bitfinex and its sister company Tether seeking the assistance of the justice system to recover the massive Bitcoin stash.
“Bitfinex/Tether certainly has the budget to mount legal action to facilitate the return of the BTC given the billions they make per quarter.
Those BTC are theirs and not their users as users were made whole a long time ago.
They already have a history of building a large BTC treasury.
Tether’s latest product is an over-collateralized stablecoin with gold. Given their BTC accumulation strategy, I could see BTC added to this product in the future when BTC volatility lowers and their BTC treasury is sufficiently large.”
If Bitfinex takes legal action to recover its Bitcoin holdings, Woo says the firm will likely do it under the radar.
“It’s in their culture to be low-key and out of the limelight. If legal action is being taken, then absolutely they would not comment publicly.”
At time of writing, the US government holds 213,246 BTC worth $12,113 billion. Meanwhile, stablecoin issuer Tether has 75,354 BTC worth $4.28 billion in its treasury.
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