On July 15, 2025, an independent journalist, Lola Leetz, published the U.S. Marshal service documents notifying that the service holds 28,988.3563016 BTC, stored via Coinbase Prime. The reported amount is 85.6% below 207,189 BTC, usually named as the U.S.’ BTC holdings amount. Does this document signify that most of the U.S. bitcoins are gone, and what’s next?
Summary
- – Responding to the FOIA request, the U.S. Marshal Service admitted it holds nearly 29,000 bitcoins
- – In March 2025, Crypto Czar David Sacks estimated the U.S. Bitcoin reserve at roughly 200,000 bitcoins
- – Earlier in July, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration mentioned that in December 2023, the U.S. held $8 billion worth of seized cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin, a bit under 200,000 bitcoins at the December 2023 prices
- – Other agencies may hold bitcoins too; however, not all of these bitcoins are owned by the U.S. Read to learn which of the bitcoins are actually owned by the state
Documents from USMS
Ahead of the publication of the official audit of the U.S. Bitcoin holdings, Leetz published the data obtained from the U.S. Marshal service via a Freedom of Information Act request. The request was made back in March, several days after the creation of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
While some reacted to the figures with dismay, as 29 thousand bitcoins doesn’t fit in the conventional belief that the U.S. holds 200 thousand bitcoins. However, the documents obtained by Leetz don’t reflect the entire holdings of the U.S. Rather, they emphasize the complexity of the Bitcoin holdings structure and stress the need for the public release of the official audit.
As Leetz herself noted via an X post, USMS is not the only agency in charge of holding bitcoins. Rightfully, she names the IRS, FBI, DEA, and other agencies that can hold seized bitcoins. The difference between seized and forfeited assets also contributes to the confusion, as the U.S. Marshal Service is focused on holding forfeited assets.
The government holds seized assets, but it doesn’t mean that the government has ownership of these assets. For instance, these assets can be returned to the victim of the crime. Forfeited assets belong to the government.
So, generally, the new information means that the U.S. owns nearly $29,000 held by USMS, while some of these coins may be seized property that will be returned to the victims. More forfeited bitcoins may be held by other governmental departments.
Leetz emphasizes that the data she obtained from USMS shows that one cannot rely on such tools as Arkham government wallet tracker to estimate the U.S. Bitcoin holdings, as this tracker doesn’t differentiate between seized and forfeited bitcoins, the former of which is not the U.S. government property.
Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and long-awaited audit
On March 6, 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order that brought the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to life. The Order prohibits the U.S. from selling bitcoins. The Department of the Treasury is obliged to control the custodian accounts. The Order gave the U.S. agencies holding Bitcoin 30 days for the accounting and reporting to the U.S. Treasury.
As of July 17, 2025, no official results of the audit have been published, and the exact amount of bitcoins held by the U.S. remains unknown. Unofficial estimations name figures between 198,000 and 207,189 bitcoins–an estimation that makes the U.S. the top BTC holder among all Bitcoin holding countries. However, many countries prefer to keep their Bitcoin holdings secret, so there is no guarantee that these estimations reflect the real situation.
Another official disclosure
While there are no official audit results of the U.S. Bitcoin stockpile as of the press time, recently, another official document gave a glimpse of the possible U.S. government’s crypto holdings that doesn’t differentiate between seized and forfeited crypto (including Bitcoin). It means that this estimation may be seen as the maximum threshold.
On July 1, 2025, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released the Final Evaluation Report aimed at pointing out the problems in the tracking of the governmental digital assets and offering certain improvements to be made.
While this document doesn’t aim to provide a precise amount of U.S.-owned bitcoins specifically, it mentions that in December 2023, the IRC Criminal Investigation “reported having seized digital assets totaling approximately $8 billion associated with open criminal investigations.” The document doesn’t specify what portion of these assets is held in cryptocurrencies different from Bitcoin, but the portion of the entire amount may be held in altcoins.
The document contains a segment describing the case when an agent converted seized Litecoin to Bitcoin. The TIGTA recommends agents to resist such practices and keep all the seized digital assets in their original form: “Best practices dictate that digital assets be kept in the form they were seized until a final order of forfeiture is entered.” According to the document, such cases are not usual.
In December 2023, $8 billion cost around 190,400 bitcoins. Not all of them can be kept by the U.S. forever, as they may be returned to the victims of the crimes. On top of that, not all of the $8 billion amount is held in BTC. However, the amount mentioned in the TIGTA report gives a rough perspective on the possible amount of seized crypto held by the U.S.
