The United States government seized cryptocurrencies worth $1.2bn in the first half of 2021.
This was disclosed by Director of Cybercrime at the Internal Revenue Service, Jarod Koopman, on CNBC.
He said that the seizure of cryptocurrencies was usually a group effort involving agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Securities Investigations, the Secret Service, and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
He said, “We all come together when it’s time to execute any type of enforcement action, whether that’s an arrest, a seizure, or a search warrant. And that could be nationally or globally.”
Koopman added that in the fiscal year of 2019, the US had $700,000 worth of crypto seizures. In 2020, it was up to $137m. And so far in 2021, it is at $1.2bn.
He said that multiple agents were involved during the actual seizure to ensure proper oversight, adding, “We maintain private keys only in headquarters so that it can’t be tampered with.”
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He said that once a case was closed, the U.S. Marshals Service auctioned off the seized cryptocurrencies. To date, the USMS has auctioned more than 185,000 BTC.
According to Bitcoin.com, last week, the Department of Justice hired crypto custodian firm, Anchorage Digital, to be its custodian for the cryptocurrency seized or forfeited in criminal cases.
