At the Digital Asset Summit on March 19, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) claimed that the previous Biden administration may have sold a significant portion of the United States’ confiscated Bitcoin holdings. During a panel discussion, Senator Lummis outlined her concerns, explaining that while the United States government may have amassed a large sum of BTC through asset forfeitures, some of these funds might have been liquidated during the Biden era.
Did Biden Sell US Bitcoin?
“We’re trying to find out how much Bitcoin and whether they are fully surrendered to US custody. We think that could be the basis for the first year’s installment of a strategic Bitcoin reserve. We think the United States 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.
According 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 confirm exactly how many BTC remain under federal control. When asked why it appears difficult to ascertain the precise holdings, Lummis was blunt:
“This should be easy to figure out. It should be easy to figure out why a federal agency has two times more credit cards issued than there are employees in the agency. I mean, there’s so much failure of just simple accounting and business practices in the federal government that it would shock you. It is 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 establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for the federal government. The legislation proposes acquiring up to one million BTC over five years, positioning Bitcoin as a store of value similar to gold reserves.
Also at the Digital Asset Summit, Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) revealed that multiple pieces of legislation are circulating in Congress with similar goals. Emmer expressed confidence that these efforts to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill to buy 1 million BTC will be enacted: “Yes, there is legislation. I think there are different members that have different versions. … I believe before this Congress is done, that will be enacted.”
Bo Hines, Executive Director of the US Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, spoke in a separate interview about the US history with seized Bitcoin. According to Hines, the government once held approximately 400,000 BTC but sold roughly half for around $370 million—a sum that would be worth nearly $17 billion at current valuations.
“If we would have held on to that, it would have been worth $17 billion today. I mean, it just goes to show you how important this asset is and what we can do with it to benefit 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 like it’s in the best interest of Americans to hold on to this asset long term and accumulate as much as we can get. … We’ve talked about building the digital Fort Knox for the United States.”
He emphasized that such a Bitcoin strategy would be budget-neutral, avoiding any additional taxpayer burden. Hines believes the internal working group set up through the first digital assets Executive Order will produce “tremendous ideas on how 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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