A U.S. appeals court upheld an order Wednesday formalizing the forfeiture of 69,370 bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies associated with the now-defunct Silk Road dark web marketplace.
This ruling was first made last August, but is scheduled to take effect from now on. filing In the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The filing Wednesday lists Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht as a defendant, two claimants and the U.S. government as plaintiffs.
According to the original complaint, the U.S. government was already controlling the cryptocurrency after it was taken over by so-called ‘Individual X’, who hacked Silk Road and took control of the funds.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice confiscated It began seeking formal confiscation of the cryptocurrency, which was valued at over $1 billion at the time. According to previous reports, 69,369 bitcoins were moved from wallet addresses a few days ago, marking the first time activity on the holdings has been collected since 2015. report To the block.
Market participants closely track the movement of funds as they frequently speculate about the impact a large-scale US government selloff could have on the price of Bitcoin.
behind bars
Ross Ulbricht, who is serving a life sentence, founded Silk Road and ran it from 2011 to 2013. The site was used to sell drugs and weapons and was shut down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after Ulbricht’s arrest in late 2013.
Ulbricht agreed to use the stolen Bitcoin to pay $3 billion. debt It gave up its rights to 69,470 Bitcoins to the U.S. government in 2022.
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About the author
Sarah is a reporter for The Block covering policy, regulation and legal events. Sarah was previously a reporter writing about securities regulation at CQ Legal, where she first began her reporting on cryptocurrencies. She Sarah has also written for The Bond Buyer and American Banker, among other financial publications. She graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in Print and Digital Journalism. Sarah lives in Washington, DC and she is an avid coffee lover. You can follow her on Twitter @ForTheWynn.