Did the U.S. Marshals Service Violate Trump's Executive Order by Selling Confiscated Bitcoin?
In a potential violation of Executive Order 14233, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) appears to have sold 57.5 Bitcoin, valued at $6.36 million, seized from Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill as part of their plea agreement. The Bitcoin was transferred to a Coinbase Prime wallet on November 3, 2025, and the address has since been emptied, indicating a sale.
The executive order, signed by President Trump, mandates that Bitcoin obtained through criminal forfeiture must be held in the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and not sold. Legal analysis confirms the seized assets fall under the order's definition of "government bitcoin," and no statute requires such assets to be liquidated.
This action by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) continues a pattern of defying federal directives, including a Justice Department memo to end prosecutions against developers of non-custodial crypto tools. The article questions whether the Trump administration is truly ending the "war on crypto," suggesting that pardoning Rodriguez and investigating this sale would affirm its pro-crypto stance.
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