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Earlier this morning, the US government announced via a court document that the Bitcoins stolen from the Bitfinex hack in 2016 must be returned to the exchange. This Bitcoin, as seen publicly on the blockchain arkham intelligenceA total of 94,643 BTC are currently worth $9.4 billion at the time of writing.
Just five days before Bitcoin supporter Donald Trump is sworn in for a second term, the US government is on the verge of sending a large portion of Bitcoin held in the US back to Bitfinex. Last summer, at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Donald Trump promised to create a national strategic bitcoin reserve using bitcoins already held by the government, obtained from hacks, seizures, etc. According to Arkham Intelligence dataThe US currently holds 198,109 Bitcoins worth more than $20.1 billion. If these coins are sent back to Bitfinex – this would reduce Trump’s promised strategic reserve by 47.77% to 103,466 BTC.
BREAKING: 🇺🇸 Donald Trump promises never to sell out #bitcoin And keep it as a strategic reserve asset if elected president pic.twitter.com/bbPRxlZfGZ
– Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) 27 July 2024
This convinces me that if the government is going to acquire large amounts of Bitcoin in the near future and in the long term, I would like them to start as close to 0 as possible, because that would require them to buy into the market. Will happen. More and raise the price higher. The court document states that Bitcoins should be returned in kind, meaning those coins would not need to be sold for dollars, relieving any downward pressure on Bitcoin’s price. . Plus returning Bitcoin to its rightful owner seems like the right thing to do, and I’m sure Bitfinex will be thrilled to get their coins back.
However, if the US government is going to buy Bitcoin on a large scale for strategic reserves, it will need to sign on to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis’ proposed legislation. As Trump’s promise suggests, he will initially keep the seized Bitcoins on government balance sheets as a strategic reserve, with the ability to acquire more BTC through other means, but made no hard promises on that. According to Senator Lummis’s proposed bill the United States would purchase 200,000 Bitcoins per year for 5 years, until it has a total of 1,000,000 Bitcoins accumulated.
JUST IN: US Senator Cynthia Lummis lays out strategic outline #bitcoin Reserve Scheme: "Buy 200k BTC per year for five years. A total of 1 million BTC." pic.twitter.com/57ofJhc8X0
– Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) 21 November 2024
However this all plays out, the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve would be bullish for the country and for Bitcoin in general. Obviously, Senator Lummis’ bill would be much more optimistic than the potential outcome, as it plans to buy back all the Bitcoin on the market, which it plans to give back to Bitfinex, and then 905,357 BTC more. That amount of buying demand is likely to send the price of Bitcoin skyrocketing, especially when other governments around the world also start buying to synchronize with our government’s purchases.
Even if Lummis’s bill does not succeed, and we only get the reserves that Trump promised, I believe it will still be enough to create FOMO for other governments to create their own reserves.
Only about 450 new Bitcoins are being mined every day, and with institutional Bitcoin purchases already outpacing the new supply of BTC mined this year, things could get crazy really fast. buckle up.
By bus: for corporate demand #bitcoin Already outpacing new Bitcoin supply this year 👀
bullish 🚀 pic.twitter.com/PyKk9Aci93
– Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) 13 January 2025
This article is a TakeThe opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.
