Bitcoin Forum

Uncle Sam, or to be more precise, the US Federal Government, has been busy. Between bouts of criticizing cryptocurrencies, regulating cryptocurrencies and spending a bit of time warning against the use of cryptocurrencies; one would think that Uncle Sam is against us… on closer examination, that may well not turn out to be the case. It seems that Uncle Sam has been playing quite the little game as it is now one of the largest holders of Bitcoin… Ever!

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/uncle-sam-worlds-second-largest-bitcoin-holder/2014/08/30

What do you think of the implications?

Tips CCN at david.parker (at) cryptocoinsnews.com

They are probably in the top 10? I should imagine above them with multiple addresses are people like... roger ver, mark karpeles, the guy on the kieser report who backed life on bitcoin, and a few more.  Wouldnt be surprised if branson had a decent stash also.

Most likely.. Yeah.

What do you think the outcome will be after a conviction if any?

Life, bitcoin and the pursuit of happiness...

And that is why sometimes I believe in American exeptionalism

FBI already auctioned off 30k btc. They still have quite the wallet though. And it's quite ironic that btc is decentralized, yet one government has one of the biggest bags.

It's kind of funny since it acts as a leverage mechanism to governments favorably considering it
Since they acquired a stake of that pie from the drug dealers and are willing to resell them lol.

It sucks that no one stood together and decided not to buy the bitcoins from the government unless they were going to offer the coin for 250 each and thats it.  If the bitcoin community didnt buy it Im sure the price of bitcoin would have sold far more cheaper in the auction

140,000 bitcoin. Hard to imagine the turbulence they will cause when they decided to sell.

The last time 30k bitcoin went to auction, coin price dropped more than 20% and then recover when someone paying above market rate the the coin.

Decentralized things always find their way to the central powers. Bitcoin is no different in this respect!

Uncle Sam is so good at confiscating and buying cheap coins  8) 8) ;) ;)

Wow, those datas are too much!

If US wants it can crash bitcoin in matter of weeks!

"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" is the logic of an entity that views everything from the perspective of a mafia boss. Which is what the USA government has become.

I just read that fact today. Can't say it isn't worrisome...

Government way of catching big fish:

Let the illegal business get big, then go in and catch it and confiscate all the money from the owner.

Instant profit.

US Government holds how many US dollars? How much of their sovereignty derives from their power over money?

With only 150,000 out of 13+ million total Bitcoins, how much less powerful will they be after the dollar is dead and gone?

Dialectic behavior.

While warning about the risks of Bitcoin and making lots of regulations that might suffocate Bitcoin, hold as many as you can, so if Bitcoin survives, they will have lots of control over it.

While prepare for the end, also prepare for the situation where Bitcoin thrives.

That way wharever happens, you'll be prepared.

That gives a serious advantage to US in terms of currency again...it was USD not US-BTC??

It's not like the sole guy who bought them is trying to chop up California into several states or something.  :o

It's obvious, isn't it? They got more people, don't they? ;) ;)

I really wonder whether they consciously decided to keep some BTC "just in case", maybe if they really think BTC could be very very valuable at some point or if they really don't care and treat it as some commodity that other people consider valuable.

Someone that holds the private keys to an address that has a lot of bitcoin does not have any control over bitcoin. If bitcoin is successful then the government would hold a lot of bitcoin that is worth a lot of money but they will have no control over it.

no your right, I was thinking of what Umair said, it would make sense if the community stood against the gov and not paid a dime for them, but greed is greed, and once the greed machine is running, it cant be stopped.

lol

the silk road seizure is small fry

we have for instance. the bitcoin foundation now in the UK (hundreds of thousands of coins)
we have a couple private exchanges based in the UK. (with over 100k coins in cold store(international customer owned but UK stored))
we have a couple public exchanges (bitstamp) in the UK with over 100k coins
we have richard branson grabbing a load of coins.
we have apple, facebook and google messing with coins(financially registered in the UK for tax evasion)
we have a belief (due to writing style and UK newspaper in genesis block) that satoshi isin the UK.


so americans are not really hoarding that much. after all

Worth a lot, but notably worth far, far less than the massive, global phoney money empire they currently ride on.

Everything that is bigger happens only in the U.S either by adoption or by seizure.I guess the largest gold reserve also is located somewhere in US

I'm not so sure anymore, China has been stacking up gold: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/pboc-banking-collapse-dollar-bitcoin/2014/07/26

Though it always possible, nobody can really predict this and people have probably been saying the same thing since it was created.

The US government can feel the doomed fate of dollar and is looking for ways of reserve currency. They acted they were against BTC. Actually they are piling up BTC when the price is down.

Source?

bitcoin is very popular in US

do you know that the third Largest Bitcoin Holder is Mr. Burns

This does not come as much of a surprise to be honest. I actually expected the US to be somewhere near the top as with the way things are now it may be that they are considering some kind of action with bitcoins. Time will tell I guess.

The problem is our leaders are too lazy and corrupt to see a new potential currency and try to implement it into the current failing currency we have.  Even though we are technologically equipped to make BTC work it isn't given a real chance to thrive.  They would rather demonize it or try and control it then see people prosper for fear it may threaten their own pockets and the feeling of power they have.  I think that is why we see companies starting to accept it more and more and then the politicians will be forced to show their hand. 

I thought those coins were auctioned off..

Some were, about 30 000 bitcoins that was confiscated from Silk Road, but they still got thousands more.

Its interesting they only decided to sell 30k, im guessing they just hedged their bet and are holding out for higher prices/long term holders on the rest.

I think they were trying to receive the maximum price for the bitcoin they were selling. If they sold it all at once then the average price would likely be much less and would likely be able to sell it for more overall if they sold them over a greater amount of time.

Well with the price right now lower they would have likely sold it for much more.  Was over $600 at time of sale ?  Also they sold in lots im not sure the full 140k would have killed bitcoin if sold.  I think its a decent hedge to sell 30k my guess is they wont sell anymore until we are in the thousands and by then maybe they wont sell?

I suspect US has some intentions behind bitcoin. Govt might also be stocking BTC.

Who knows..

This shows US has powers to cause inflation in BTC.

What if US suddenly bans BTC?

I don't think that Draper would be able to buy all 140k bitcoin if they were all on the auction block at one time. I also would doubt that any of the exchanges would be able to buy the bitcoin at a price that is even within 25% of the selling price at the time.

I don't see how there could possibly be enough demand for that much bitcoin to be bought at one time in those large of blocks.

Aren't they going to sell them, like the rest?

US might be planning something serious with the bitcoins...its almost in their hands.

I agree. I think that Tim Draper likely has access to a lot of money, but probably not enough to buy all 140k bitcoin. I think the reason coinbase and other exchanges were bidding was likely because they were hoping to buy them at a discount and sell them to their customers at the current market rate. This would potentially give coinbase an incentive to sell (and buy) bitcoin for a lower then market rate, causing the overall market prices to decline.

Not the first time US Goverment is claiming one thing while doing another. Whatever. Used to it.