The United States Supreme Court has declined to hear a case concerning 69,370 Bitcoin, which were confiscated from the Silk Road dark web marketplace and are estimated to be worth $4.38 billion.
Battle Born Investments, a corporation that claims ownership of the Bitcoin, requested a review from the Supreme Court.
The company contended that it had acquired the rights to the impounded Bitcoin through a bankruptcy estate.
Nevertheless, the government’s control over the cryptocurrency is largely uncontested as a result of the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case.
The decision also facilitates the sale of the substantial Bitcoin stockpile by the United States government. Battle Born Investments initiated the legal dispute by claiming that it acquired the Bitcoin through a bankruptcy claim following the closure of Silk Road in 2013.
According to the allegations, Raymond Ngan, a delinquent in the bankruptcy proceedings, was the enigmatic “Individual X” who had illegally obtained billions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin from Silk Road.
Courts have consistently rejected the company, regardless of its claims. In 2022, a district court determined that Battle Born did not have a legitimate claim to the Bitcoin.
The subsequent year, an appeals court in San Francisco upheld this decision, determining that the firm’s claims were not legally valid.
The Supreme Court’s recent decision to decline the case represents the culmination of these setbacks, effectively closing the legal pathway for Battle Born.
The Supreme Court, which typically considers only 100 to 150 of the over 7,000 annual review requests, declined to pursue this matter further.
This decision considerably increases the probability that the government’s civil forfeiture action will be successful, thereby enabling it to proceed with the prospective sale of the seized Bitcoin.
The movement of a portion of the Silk Road-linked Bitcoin has already commenced by the U.S. government.
The U.S. Marshals Service transmitted approximately $2 billion in cryptocurrency on July 29, through Coinbase Prime, for custody.
There is a history of market fluctuations resulting from the sale of such substantial quantities of Bitcoin by governments.
For instance, the German government sold nearly 50,000 Bitcoin, estimated to be worth over $3.15 billion, in June and July, which resulted in significant market volatility.
It is worth noting that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has expressed his intention to establish a “strategic Bitcoin stockpile” in the event that he secures the forthcoming election.
In the interim, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has yet to specify her position on the management of seized cryptocurrency.
Silk Road, which was established by Ross Ulbricht in 2011, was renowned for its facilitation of illicit transactions prior to its closure.
For charges such as money laundering and narcotic distribution, Ulbricht is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
If elected president, Trump has also expressed his willingness to contemplate commuted Ulbricht’s sentence.
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