The moves the United States is making with bitcoin (BTC) holdings held by Joe Biden's government are causing concern among some members of the community.
The main fear is that President Joe Biden will sell the bitcoins before handing over power to Donald Trump on January 20. The concerns came to the fore on December 3, after it became known that a cryptocurrency wallet in the United States transferred about 10,000 BTC to the Coinbase Prime wallet, equivalent to approximately 963 million dollars.
This move - which is often interpreted as a prelude to the sale of digital assets - took place on Monday, December 2. In light of this, cryptocurrency industry executives and observers were quick to question the government's decision.
“This is a huge strategic mistake. There is no price that makes sense for the United States to sell any bitcoin it has under its control,” said Jason Lowery, a major in the U.S. Space Force who is known for his support of cryptocurrencies. “They have no idea what they own, and it shows,” he added on his X account.
The idea was supported by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who agreed that the US government should not sell its bitcoins.
“If they are dumb enough to sell (and we all know governments are), then that supply will be instantly depleted,” added crypto educator Toby Cunningham, while investor Daniel Evans thinks the BTC sell-off will likely send money to Ukraine. “Biden will do as much damage as he can before he leaves office,” he concluded.
“Remember this post when they inevitably try to justify a new version of EO 6102 to recover the bitcoin they sold due to their ignorance of the true meaning of this technology,” Lowery replied in his message.
This is an executive order signed in 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that prohibits the hoarding of gold coins, gold bullion and gold certificates in the United States. Lowery fears that a new such order could be passed and bitcoin holdings would begin to be limited.
However, amid speculation, some voices recalled that throughout this year, bitcoin holdings have been mobilized without any sales being made. So far in 2024, some 25,999 BTC have been sent to the Coinbase wallet.
On this, Gabor Gurbacs, strategy advisor at Tether, thinks the US government could be consolidating wallets or updating old addresses. “There are also many things we don’t know. There is no guarantee that they will be sold. I haven’t seen any official information about the auction yet,” he commented. A
At this point, CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno, intervened to point out that it is “highly likely” that 9,999.99 BTC were sold in the latest movements and sent to Coinbase Prime, “The other 9,799.99 Bitcoin are in a newly created address.” He accompanied his message with the following graph showing US holdings since 2021.
Source: CryptoQuant.
According to Spot on Chain statistics, the United States currently holds around 183,850 BTC worth approximately $17.7 billion spread across various addresses, making it one of the top Bitcoin whales. In addition to BTC, it holds cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum ’s ETH, USDT, BNB, and BUSD, among other altcoins.
