The Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets has confirmed on X that no government BTC was sold, despite recent reports.
Patrick Witt posted an update on X regarding the sale of 57.55 BTC forfeited by Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and Will Lonergan Hill.
Presidential Orders and Bitcoin Forfeiture
Earlier this month, it was reported that the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) had sold approximately $6.3 million worth of Bitcoin. This Bitcoin was handed over by Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill as part of a guilty plea.
On November 3 last year, on-chain data recorded a transfer of the seized 57.55353033 BTC from a government-controlled address to a Coinbase Prime deposit address. The Coinbase address soon showed a zero balance, leading many analysts to believe that the assets had been sold for cash. This action was interpreted by some as a direct violation of Executive Order 14233, signed by President Trump in March 2025.
Executive Order 14233 specifically mandates that any “Government BTC” acquired through criminal or civil forfeiture “shall not be sold” and must instead be held in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR).
Patrick Witt, the Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, took to X (formerly Twitter) to clarify the situation.
“We have received confirmation from (the) DOJ that the digital assets forfeited by Samourai Wallet have not been liquidated and will not be liquidated, per EO 14233. They will remain on the USG balance sheet as part of the SBR,” he said.
Legal Proceedings and Legislative Developments
Despite Todd Blanche’s memo from May 2025 that instructed the DOJ to only go after cases where there’s evidence of “knowing and willful” criminal intent by the developers themselves, the SDNY successfully secured convictions for Roman Storm, a co-founder of Tornado Cash. In August 2025, a jury found him guilty of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
The SDNY also sentenced Rodriguez and Hill in November 2025 to five and four years in prison, respectively. President Trump told reporters in December last year that he is “looking into” a pardon for Rodriguez.
Separately, Tim Scott, the Senate Banking Committee Chair, was forced to postpone a high-profile hearing for the CLARITY Act. This postponement followed Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, announcing on social media that he would no longer be supporting the current draft of the bill.
Armstrong expressed concern that the bill grants too much authority to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over stablecoins and DeFi protocols. Without the backing of the largest U.S. crypto exchange, the bipartisan consensus led by Senator Cynthia Lummis has begun to fracture. Despite this, Senator Lummis has stated that lawmakers are “closer than ever” to a final deal.
The current draft of the CLARITY Act includes rules that ban platforms like Coinbase from offering interests or rewards on stablecoins. This ban is considered a significant win for traditional banking platforms, which have argued that high stablecoin returns were diverting substantial funds from their sector.
If these issues are not resolved, the bill could fail to pass before the 2026 election cycle begins, potentially freezing all legislative processes related to the act.