A popular on-chain analyst believes the US government will eventually return nearly 100,000 seized Bitcoin (BTC) to its rightful owners.
Late last month, former President Donald Trump said at the Bitcoin2024 conference that his administration will retain “100% of all Bitcoin that the U.S. government currently owns or acquires in the future.”
But analyst Willy Woo tells his 1.1 million followers on the social media platform
“I keep hearing that there are 200,000 BTC in the hands of the US government. 96,000 BTC comes from the Bitfinex hack. After a fair trial, I would expect the stolen money to be returned to Bitfinex.”
In February 2022, the US Department of Justice announced that it had seized and recovered more than 94,000 Bitcoin stolen during the 2016 Bitfinex hack.
Woo says he sees Bitfinex and its sister company Tether seeking the legal system’s help to get back the massive Bitcoin supply.
“Bitfinex/Tether certainly has the budget to take legal action to facilitate the return of BTC, given the billions they make per quarter.
Those BTC belong to them and not to their users, as users were made whole a long time ago.
They already have a history of building a large BTC treasury.
Tether’s latest product is a stablecoin with too much collateral and gold. Given their BTC accumulation strategy, I could see BTC being added to this product in the future when BTC volatility decreases and their BTC treasury is sufficiently large.”
If Bitfinex takes legal action to regain its Bitcoin holdings, Woo says the company will likely do so under the radar.
“It is in their culture to be quiet and not be in the spotlight. If legal action is taken, they will make absolutely no public comment.”
At the time of writing, the US government owns 213,246 BTC worth $12,113 billion. Meanwhile, stablecoin issuer Tether has 75,354 BTC worth $4.28 billion in its treasury.
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Generated image: Midjourney