On the Digital Asset Summit on March 19, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) claimed that the previous Biden administration could have sold a significant slice of the USA’ confiscated Bitcoin holdings. During a panel discussion, Senator Lummis outlined her concerns, explaining that while the USA government could have amassed a big sum of BTC through asset forfeitures, a few of these funds may need been liquidated through the Biden era.
Did Biden Sell US Bitcoin?
“We’re attempting to learn the way much Bitcoin and whether or not they are fully surrendered to US custody. We predict that might be the idea for the primary 12 months’s installment of a strategic Bitcoin reserve. We predict the USA has held about 200,000 Bitcoin in asset forfeiture. What we don’t know is how much of that the Biden administration was selling right before the Trump administration took office,” Lummis said.
In response to Lummis, her office has issued formal inquiries to the US Marshals Service and spoken with United States Attorney General in Donald Trump’s cabinet Pam Bondi in a bid to substantiate exactly what number of BTC remain under federal control. When asked why it appears difficult to determine the precise holdings, Lummis was blunt:
“This needs to be easy to work out. It needs to be easy to work out why a federal agency has two times more bank cards issued than there are employees within the agency. I mean, there’s a lot failure of just easy accounting and business practices within the federal government that it will shock you. It’s inexcusable.”
Lummis has been a vocal proponent of integrating BTC into the US financial structure. Last week, she reintroduced the BITCOIN Act at a conference organized by The Bitcoin Policy Institute, aiming to ascertain a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for the federal government. The laws proposes acquiring up to 1 million BTC over five years, positioning Bitcoin as a store of value much like gold reserves.
Also on the Digital Asset Summit, Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) revealed that multiple pieces of laws are circulating in Congress with similar goals. Emmer expressed confidence that these efforts to ascertain a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill to purchase 1 million BTC will probably be enacted: “Yes, there’s laws. I believe there are different members which have different versions. … I feel before this Congress is finished, that will probably be enacted.”
Bo Hines, Executive Director of the US Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, spoke in a separate interview concerning the US history with seized Bitcoin. In response to Hines, the federal government once held roughly 400,000 BTC but sold roughly half for around $370 million—a sum that may be value nearly $17 billion at current valuations.
“If we might have held on to that, it will have been value $17 billion today. I mean, it just goes to indicate you the way vital this asset is and what we are able to do with it to profit the American people.”
Hines also confirmed the White House’s ambition to expand the US government’s Bitcoin reserves in a budget neutral-way: “We feel prefer it’s in the perfect interest of Americans to carry on to this asset long run and accumulate as much as we are able to get. … We’ve talked about constructing the digital Fort Knox for the USA.”
He emphasized that such a Bitcoin strategy can be budget-neutral, avoiding any additional taxpayer burden. Hines believes the inner working group arrange through the primary digital assets Executive Order will produce “tremendous ideas on the right way to accomplish this.”
Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order mandating the creation of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The Reserve is to be funded by BTC seized under criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. As per the order, relevant agencies must provide a comprehensive accounting of their digital asset holdings to the Secretary of the Treasury and the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.
At press time, BTC traded at $85,748.
Featured image from Wyoming Public Radio, chart from TradingView.com
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