- The U.S. Marshals Service has confirmed it currently holds just 28,988 bitcoins, far less than the 200,000 most considered it held
- This disclosure follows the release of an internal asset list obtained via a Freedom of Information request
- The balance has been liquidated, flying in the face of the U.S. government’s pro-Bitcoin stance
The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) holds just 28,988 bitcoins, far fewer than was previously assumed. Responding to a challenge laid down by Bitcoin Magazine Chairman David Bailey, an investigative journalist going by the pseudonym L0la L33tz on X requested the information from the USMS via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, earning herself a $10,000 bounty in the process. The figure marks a significant reduction from previous estimates and somewhat undermines President Donald Trump’s pledge that seized bitcoins would go into the country’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Journalist Posts Asset Sheet
The surprisingly low number was revealed when L0la L33tz responded to Bailey’s challenge:
Hey @DavidFBailey, man of your word, looks like you owe me $10,000 https://t.co/4zE0pugqpr pic.twitter.com/LSYpkheJGH
— L0la L33tz (@L0laL33tz) July 16, 2025
The spreadsheet listed all the addresses holding USMS bitcoins, including a clear total of 28,988.061677 BTC held by the agency as of its last update. The figure also confirms what blockchain intelligence group Arkham Intelligence has reported in the past about the government’s Bitcoin holdings; Arkham has reported U.S. government wallets consolidating and offloading large amounts of bitcoins in recent months.
Implications for Federal Crypto Policy
The revelation confirms that the Marshals Service, long responsible for managing seized assets from crypto crime cases, no longer holds the vast trove of bitcoins it previously did, which once topped 200,000. The agency managed tens of thousands of BTC confiscated from cases involving Silk Road, ransomware attacks, and fraud schemes, but it rather undermines the U.S. government’s aims for the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve; when it was confirmed in March, AI and crypto czar David Sacks said that the fund would be made up of bitcoins already acquired through criminal and civil asset forfeiture proceedings. If the USMS has sold almost 170,000 of these coins, that doesn’t bode well for the reserve, which could be $20 billion better off had they not been liquidated.
While some are understandably shocked by the low amount left in the kitty, some pointed out that there may be more not yet accounted for:
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-conversation=”none”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Send an FOIA to the DOJ and IRS as well. The 28,988 BTC figure is just the USMS’s current, liquidatable portion, while the rest is held by other agencies and/or reserved for victims. This is being sensationalized as if USG sold off the rest en masse, when it belongs to victims.</p>— Shifu Dumo (@dumimo) <a href=”https://twitter.com/dumimo/status/1945571411118150136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>July 16, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
Either way, the number held by the official custodians is shockingly low and will lead to concerns that the U.S. government is not standing by its Bitcoin pledge.
