The bitcoins, estimated at USD 4.4 billion, are claimed by the firm Battle Born Investments.
The firm had appealed to the US Supreme Court in order to recover the BTC.
At the start of its annual session, the Supreme Court of Justice, the highest court in the United States, refused to review an appeal related to a batch of bitcoins associated with the defunct Silk Road platform.
This is an appeal introduced by the firm Battle Born Investments in 2023, through which claims ownership of 69,370 BTC that were seized from an unidentified individual, by Ross Ulbricht’s dark web market case. As the company explains in your requestin 2013 acquired bitcoins amid bankruptcy claims, following the collapse of Silk Road.
Battle Born claims to possess the bitcoins confiscated from “Individual X,” who in turn had stolen them from the underground site. Your claim has been denied on several occasionsfor which they requested the Supreme Court for a certiorarithe process of requesting judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. They claim to be “an innocent owner due to his status as buyer of the estate during the bankruptcy.”
However, a publication from the Supreme Court on October 7 refuses to apply the procedure, opening the door so that a confiscation order of the bitcoins in claim is effectively complied withemanating from the US District Court.
The Supreme Court’s denial was preceded by a document of the US Attorney General’s Office, which last July recommended to the Superior Court that the certiorarisince he considers that “there is no evidence that certifies the ownership of Battle Born.”
In this way, it is expected that the United States government will now be able to “dispose of the confiscated property in accordance with the law.” This means that the US Marshals or other agency can receive judicial instructions to liquidate the almost 70,000 bitcoins. The figure, which is currently equivalent to about USD 4.4 billion, could enter the market for auction.
The US Marshals Service is expected to handle the liquidation, after completing several formalities. If this sale were to be completed, we would be facing one of the largest liquidations of seized bitcoins in history.
As CriptoNoticias has reported, the United States government has been moving a significant portion of the Silk Road bitcoins confiscated in recent months, probably in preparation for sale. Last August, 10,000 BTC were moved to Coinbase’s custody service, while last July and April movements were recorded with 60,000 of the Silk Road BTC seized by the US.
This comes at a time when the handling of seized bitcoin has become at a debate point in the elections Americans next November. In July, former president and candidate Donald Trump promised to create a “strategic Bitcoin reserve” from bitcoin seized by the government.
