SEC formally accepts Grayscale XRP and Dogecoin ETF applications for review Crypto Briefing
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On Wednesday, December 20, a U.S. appeals court issued a mandate formalizing the forfeiture of 69,370 bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies linked to the now-defunct Silk Road dark web marketplace.
The initial judgment, dated August, has now been solidified, as confirmed by a filing in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday.
US Govt. Can Now Control Silk Road Bitcoins
The court document lists Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht as a defendant, along with two claimants and the U.S. government as the plaintiff. This finalization of the forfeiture follows the U.S. government’s control of the cryptocurrency, which was previously acquired from a mysterious figure known as “Individual X.”
This individual purportedly hacked into Silk Road, gaining control of its funds, as outlined in the original complaint. The completion of this legal process underscores the government’s authority over the seized digital assets connected to the notorious dark web marketplace.
Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht, currently serving a life sentence, established and managed the notorious online marketplace from 2011 to 2013. The platform also facilitated the illicit trade of drugs and weapons before being forcibly closed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) upon Ulbricht’s arrest in late 2013.
Furthermore, in 2022, Ulbricht reached an agreement to allocate $3 billion worth of stolen bitcoin to settle debts with the U.S. government. As part of this arrangement, he also forfeited the rights to 69,470 Bitcoins.
Several days ago, a wallet address containing a substantial amount of Bitcoins, precisely 69,369, witnessed its first movement of funds since 2015.
Will US Govt. Hold or Sell the BTC?
Throughout the year, the US Govt. has been selling the Bitcoins recovered through the Silk Road route. Earlier this year in March, US officials sold nearly 10,000 Bitcoins while retaining 41,000+ BTC.
Considering that the Bitcoin price has moved up considerably by 100% since the beginning of 2023, the US govt. might think of holding them. Also, analysts are bullish over the spot Bitcoin ETF approval and the Bitcoin halving in 2024. Thus, they are already giving BTC price targets of $100K and more.
The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.
Ukraine has been in the news a lot recently. Well, it has cropped up again, although not in the way you may expect.
Today, the government officially passed a law legalising Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The bill was originally passed last September, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelanskyy had sent it back to parliament for changes. Today, four months later, it has been formally signed into law.
“The development of a new industry will allow attracting transparent investments and will strengthen the image of our country as a high-tech state,” Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister of digital transformation, had commented on the bill in September.
It is a positive step that strives to protect digital asset owners, exchanges and other stakeholders in the industry. Particularly notable is the inclusion of the terms digital wallet, private key and virtual assets in Ukrainian legislation for the first time. While there will always be groups who protest the introduction of regulation into crypto, overall it is a promising development for the industry and should encourage more transparency and confidence for those operating in Ukraine, as well as reducing fraud. The hope is that covert mining operations, evasive tax schemes and other “shadow” crypto activities should now decrease, while innovation will spike and foreign investment will flow into the country.
Unfortunately, there is an elephant in the room here. Even diehard crypto fans are unlikely to be queuing up to book one-way tickets to Ukraine, given the ongoing issues with a certain Mr. Putin. The reality is that you can list all the Ukrainian crypto positives you want – such as low taxes, streamlined legal framework, improvement in technical infrastructure and an abundance of engineers – but as long as there are 150,000 Russian troops stationed at the border, Ukraine’s hope to become the digital asset hub of Eastern Europe isn’t likely to be achieved anytime soon.
However, political concerns aside, it sees Ukraine steam towards the front of the European countries legal framework on crypto. While South America has been particularly welcoming in their approach to crypto legalization, Europe to date has not been as warm. The EU has begun to place a tighter leash on crypto transfers, striving to make them more traceable. While individual states have legalized it – perhaps most notable was the passing of a law in Germany last year allowing German Spezialfonds to allocate up to 20% of their assets to crypto – Ukraine still had high hopes to lead the virtual charge on the continent, back when the bill was originally put forward.
Of course, the final interesting quirk in this story is the stark contrast compared to Russia. Putin has been notoriously anti-crypto, pushing for an outright ban on the industry and instead focusing efforts on the development of a central bank digital currency.
It’s one more thing for them to disagree with Ukraine on.
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