US Supreme Court denies $4.4b ownership case request from Battle Born

The United States Supreme Court dismissed Battle Born Investment’s lawsuit over the ownership of 69,370 Bitcoins (worth $4.38 billion) it seized from the US dark web market Silk Road.

On October 7, the US Supreme Court issued a list of orders that included Battle Born Investments’ request to review the ownership of 69,370 BTC seized from the Silk Road black market.

Battle Born Investments claimed that it purchased the rights to the seized Bitcoin (BTC) through bankruptcy. However, the firm failed to convince the courts when it applied to acquire BTC through bankruptcy proceedings in 2022 and 2023, following the closure of Silk Road in 2013.

The Supreme Court’s dismissal of the case once again means the US government can now sell seized digital assets that once belonged to the Silk Road.

In mid-August. In 2024, financial attorney Scott Johnsson reported that the US Marshalls had published Silk Road’s Bitcoin holdings shortly after a post sharing data from Founders Fund’s Bitcoin explorer Tokenview revealed that more than 19,000 BTC had been moved to a Coinbase account. He predicted it would sell.

Yes, the US Marshal Service (USMS) almost certainly sells silk road bitcoin. Joey is right (at least right now). USMS sends BTC to the custody address required by the terms of the service agreement USMS signed with Coinbase in June. Given…

— Scott Johnsson (@SGJohnsson) 16 August 2024

Earlier that month, a US government wallet sent 10,000 BTC to crypto brokerage platform Coinbase Prime. According to Arkham Intel. US authorities sent the Bitcoin chunk to a wallet named “bc1ql” two weeks ago.

Often governments dumping large amounts of cryptocurrency has been shown to cause significant market volatility in the past. This is evidenced by the fact that BTC prices fell by 3.6% after the news broke, although the price drop began before Coinbase Prime received the seized Silk Road funds.

In July, crypto.news reported that the US government also sent $2 billion in BTC, with the recipient believed to be Coinbase. The transfer was made shortly after former president Donald Trump announced his desire to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

Silk Road was an online black market and the first modern darknet market created in 2011 by Ross Ulbricht, operating under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts”.

In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation shut down the Silk Road site and arrested Ulbricht. He is currently serving a life sentence for money laundering and conspiracy to distribute drugs, among other convictions.

In May 2024, Donald Trump promised to release Ulbricth from prison if he won the presidency.