A wallet tagged to the US government recently moved a small amount of Bitcoin linked to assets seized from Alameda Research's Binance.US accounts. The transaction has revived concerns that Washington could be preparing to liquidate parts of its forfeited Bitcoin holdings.
Under President Donald Trump's March 2025 executive order, Bitcoin deposited into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve "shall not be sold," establishing qualifying forfeited BTC as a long-term Treasury asset. Trump stated on Aug. 19 that he had made Bitcoin a permanent asset of the United States Treasury.
The fine print of the reserve sale ban
The executive order's sale ban applies strictly to Bitcoin that is forfeited, held by the Treasury, and not required for statutory obligations. The policy does not automatically cover all government-controlled or seized Bitcoin.
Furthermore, the order permits agency heads to dispose of digital assets under specific exceptions, including:
- Court orders and legal requirements
- Return to identifiable and verifiable crime victims
- Law-enforcement operations
- Statutory forfeiture-fund requirements
Court records in US v. Bankman-Fried list approximately 682 BTC seized from two Alameda Research accounts at Binance.US. A smaller transaction of 1.3773854 BTC brought the total native Bitcoin to roughly 683.71 BTC, valued at about $53.6 million when Bitcoin traded near $78,463. These assets are part of an $11 billion forfeiture order tied to Alameda's collapse, from which the Department of Justice has already drawn funds to pay victims directly. Financial statements for fiscal 2025 show the US Marshals Service received a $627.9 million interbank settlement in October 2025 as partial payment.
Wrapped tokens and tracking discrepancies
The Alameda schedule also lists approximately 750.72 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), which falls under a different legal category. Trump's order creates the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve exclusively for native BTC, while establishing a separate US Digital Asset Stockpile for other digital assets where the Treasury Secretary retains discretion over stewardship and potential sales.
Public trackers estimate total US-controlled Bitcoin holdings between 198,000 and 328,000 BTC, representing a gap of roughly 130,000 BTC. This discrepancy exists because terms like seized, forfeited, government-controlled, and reserve-owned represent distinct legal statuses that public trackers frequently treat as interchangeable.
