U.S. Government’s Massive Bitcoin Cache Exposed

Unexpectedly, the US government has emerged as one of the world’s greatest Bitcoin hodlers, with a collection of more than 200,000 BTC, worth more than $5 billion. Despite selling thousands of bitcoin earlier this year, the government still has a sizable cryptocurrency position.

Using publicly accessible data, the cryptocurrency company 21.co calculated that the US government now controls around 194,188 BTC, worth $5.3 billion. These estimates serve as a lower-bound estimate of the amount of Bitcoin the government has.

The investigation focused followed the transfer of Bitcoin in the three largest Bitcoin seizures since 2020 in relation to U.S. government wallets. These seizures include the 69,369 BTC taken from Silk Road in November 2020, the 94,643 BTC taken from Bitfinex in January 2022, and the 51,326 BTC taken from James Zhong in March 2022.

The Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service have custody of the majority of the U.S. government’s Bitcoin assets, which are kept offline in encrypted hardware wallets. Notably, in 2022, the authorities carried out two sizable seizures.

It’s crucial to realize, nevertheless, that confiscated property does not automatically become public property. The U.S. Marshals Service, which is in charge of selling confiscated property, only takes control of the Bitcoin once a judge issues a final forfeiture ruling.

On occasion, the government sells Bitcoin that has been confiscated at auction in accordance with court orders for liquidation. A notable example of such an auction was when billionaire Tim Draper purchased 30,000 BTC through American government auctions in 2014.

The American government has occasionally chosen open auctions, but has also used cryptocurrency exchanges to make it easier to sell Bitcoin that has been confiscated. For instance, according to public disclosures, the government sold 9,118 BTC on Coinbase in March of this year.

The Evolving Blockchain Attacks

Blockchain assaults have increased as a result of these advances in the bitcoin sector. In order to breach smart contracts and other assets inside the blockchain ecosystem, hackers are using ever-more-sophisticated techniques. The dynamic nature of these assaults makes mitigation very difficult.

The use of false browser updates, where users are persuaded to update their browsers using a phony landing page and link, is one significant tactic used by hackers. This deceitful strategy eventually results in complete site defacement and fake browser update notifications that spread malware.

Threat actors can alter the attack chain by continuously modifying harmful code with each new blockchain transaction because to the dynamic nature of these assaults. This is a significant obstacle for security measures.

Security researchers Nati Tal and Oleg Zaytsev of Guardio Labs highlighted the autonomous execution of compromised smart contracts. Binance and other concerned companies are depending on their developer communities to identify harmful code in contracts since once deployed, these contracts function independently.

It’s imperative for website owners to improve their security procedures, especially those who use WordPress, which runs over 43% of all websites. The vulnerability of WordPress websites, which frequently act as main entrance points for these threats to reach a large audience, was highlighted by Guardio.