The Biden-era practice of auctioning off seized crypto assets appears to be officially dead, but old habits—and rumors—die hard. On Friday, January 16, the Trump administration moved decisively to shut down reports that it had sold off Bitcoin seized from the developers of Samourai Wallet. Patrick Witt, a key figure in the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, issued a blunt denial: the coins haven’t moved, and they aren’t for sale.
This clarification comes as a significant relief to a crypto market that has been on edge. For weeks, speculation had mounted that the Department of Justice (DOJ) might have gone rogue, bypassing President Trump’s executive order to liquidate assets behind the administration’s back.
The Rumor Mill Spins: Did the DOJ Sell?
The controversy ignited earlier this month when Bitcoin Magazine published a report that sent jitters through the community. Blockchain sleuths had flagged a transfer of approximately 57.55 Bitcoin—valued at roughly $6.3 million—from a government-controlled wallet to Coinbase Prime in November 2025.
In the world of on-chain analysis, a transfer to a prime broker like Coinbase is almost always interpreted as a prelude to a sale. When the receiving address subsequently showed a zero balance, many analysts jumped to the conclusion that the U.S. Marshals Service had cashed out.
If true, such a move would have been a direct violation of Executive Order 14233. The order specifies that any Bitcoin that is obtained by civil or criminal forfeiture is a requirement to keep. This Executive Order was signed into effect by President Trump in March 2025. It was the cornerstone of the administration’s “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” (SBR) policy—a promise to turn the U.S. government into a long-term holder rather than a dumper of digital assets.
The Official Stance: Diamond Hands
Patrick Witt, who also serves as Deputy Director at the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital, took to X (formerly Twitter) to set the record straight. He stated that his office had received direct confirmation from the DOJ that the assets “have not been liquidated and will not be liquidated.”
“They will remain on the USG balance sheet as part of the SBR,” Witt confirmed.
This statement implies that the movement of these funds to Coinbase Prime appears to be a custodial transfer, rather than caused from selling the funds off. The government and other large institutions will routinely move assets between cold storage locations and their custodian for risk management and/or audit purposes.
The Samourai Saga
This particular Bitcoin is a legacy of one of the more significant legal disputes in the history of cryptocurrency. It was seized from Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, creators of the privacy-oriented mixing service Samourai Wallet.
In 2025, both men admitted guilt in relation to an agreement to run an unlicensed money transfer enterprise. Prosecutors claimed the software was responsible for processing at least 2 billion dollars worth of unlawful activity and provided safe access to cash for criminals and money laundering services. The developers were sentenced to five and four years in prison, respectively, and ordered to forfeit millions in assets.
Critics of the prosecution have long argued that writing non-custodial privacy code should be protected speech, not a crime. While the legal battle over privacy rights was lost, the fate of the seized assets has become a new battleground for policy compliance.
A New Era for Crypto Enforcement?
The confusion surrounding the Samurai funds illustrates the frictions experienced during a transitional period. The cryptocurrency industry will be closely monitoring whether or not “the age of ‘Regulation by Prosecution,’ ” has actually ended.
Under President Trump’s presidency there was an immense change of direction for the Department of Justice (DOJ). This shift includes a Memo that was issued on April 2025 by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, which states that the DOJ will no longer aggressively pursue the non-custodial tool creators in their prosecutions. However, the continued incarceration of the Samourai devs—and the fears of asset liquidation—suggest that the machinery of the state takes time to change course.
For now, the administration’s swift response to the liquidation rumors is being hailed as a victory for transparency. It signals that the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is more than just a campaign slogan; it is an active policy railing against the bureaucracy’s old reflex to sell.
