The U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve project has been at a standstill since Donald Trump’s election. This is especially true if the Department of Justice fails to comply with his executive order by selling the BTC seized in the Samurai Wallet case.
Did the United States sell the BTC seized from Samurai Wallet?
As early as Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, the promise to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve whetted the appetite for returns—and swayed votes—among cryptocurrency enthusiasts with the prospect of the U.S. government buying BTC in bulk.
But what was supposed to be a historic accumulation quickly turned into a more modest and disappointing holding of BTC seized during legal proceedings, with a portfolio currently estimated at just under $31 billion (328,372 BTC).
This amount places the United States at the top of the list of countries holding Bitcoin, far ahead of China (190,000 BTC) and the United Kingdom (61,245 BTC). This follows the promise made by Donald Trump—when he signed a historic executive order last March—that all seized BTC would be added to this strategic reserve.
This commitment appears to have just been broken by the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), according to information available on the blockchain monitoring site Arkham Intelligence.
At issue: a transfer of $6.15 million (57.5 BTC) to the institutional cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase Prime, dated November 3, involving bitcoins seized in connection with the Samurai Wallet case.
Transfer of BTC seized from Samurai Wallet to Coinbase Prime
A Strategic Bitcoin Reserve That Is Struggling to Take Shape
According to available information, this case began when the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) negotiated the transfer of BTC held by Samurai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill as part of their guilty pleas.
The seizure was recorded as reimbursement for legal costs incurred by the U.S. Department of Justice for the Southern District of New York, which is handling this case. And, in all likelihood, the DOJ intends to recover the millions of dollars in question, in defiance of the executive order issued by Donald Trump a few months earlier.
It is impossible to know whether the BTC in question has actually been sold at the time of this writing. However, an internal DOJ document titled “Asset Liquidation Agreement,” recently made public by Bitcoin Magazine, states very clearly that the sale must take place.
This situation is not truly surprising, as it appears that the New York Department of Justice—also known as the “Sovereign District of New York”—is accustomed to carrying out this type of procedure without any government authorization, even though it is part of the federal system.
In any case, this case brings back into the spotlight the obvious lack of progress on this proposed national strategic Bitcoin reserve—a project that was nevertheless heavily promoted and championed by Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration. And for good reason: they can’t even manage to hold onto the seized BTC.
