US eyes forfeiture of seized Silk Road bitcoin worth over $1 billion

The US Justice Department is seeking forfeiture of the over $1 billion worth of bitcoin it had seized from an unnamed hacker who stole them from the underground online marketplace Silk Road.

It is the largest cryptocurrency seizure ever made by the US government.

The 69,370 bitcoins once belonged to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.

Blockchain trackers Elliptic and Ciphertrace reported that the said cryptocurrencies were being moved to another account.

The US government has to prove in court that the items are subject to forfeiture. It auctions off forfeited cryptocurrency.

Bitcoins are selling above $13,000, their highest levels since January 2018.

In 2013, the US government seized Silk Road for its massive drug and money laundering practices.

The website’s creator, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to double life imprisonment plus forty years, without the possibility of parole, after his conviction in 2015 of seven counts of enabling illegal drug sales via bitcoin.

Ulbricht lost an appeal in 2017, and his petition for a writ of certiorari with the US Supreme Court, asking that he be heard on appeal on evidentiary and sentencing issues, was denied in 2018.