Tron (TRX) Founder Justin Sun says he wants to buy the more than $1.1 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) that the US government plans to sell, possibly as early as this month.
Sun tells his 3.4 million Twitter followers that he is offering to buy the government-seized Bitcoin at a 10% discount to offset the impacts such a large sale could have on the crypto market.
“US government has announced its intention to sell an additional 41,500 BTC this year. To minimize the potential impact on the market, I would like to offer to purchase these BTC at a 10% discount for an OTC [over the counter] deal.”
Sun is reacting to the news that the government said it is planning to sell the remainder of the roughly 51,351 Bitcoin seized from hacker James Zhong, who authorities accused of stealing the virtual assets from the now defunct Silk Road illicit marketplace in 2012.
On March 14th, the government sold about 9,861 BTC of the total amount seized for more than $215 million, leaving about 41,491 BTC.
At Bitcoin’s current price of $27,588, the sale of the remaining BTC would have a value of more than $1.14 billion.
The new details about the seized BTC were in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and pertains to the sentencing of Zhong.
The government says it will not sell the remainder of the BTC until after Zhong is sentenced, which is scheduled for April 14th.
Zhong was accused of stealing Bitcoin by fooling the site’s payment processing system through the use of fake accounts and rapid deposits and then withdrawals of larger amounts.
Zhong pleaded guilty to committing wire fraud in connection with the theft.
Silk Road was a former darknet black market in operation from approximately 2011-2013 and was often associated with illegal activities such as money laundering and drug running.
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