More than $15 billion gone, and not a single sell order. According to Journal du Coin, the U.S. government's bitcoin holdings have fallen from around $40.7 billion to around $25.5 billion since their peak in October 2025. Washington has nothing to do with it: bitcoin lost a third of its value over the period. Yet according to the outlet, the United States holds the largest public bitcoin treasury on the planet, roughly 1.5% of the circulating supply.
From $40 billion to $25 billion without selling a thing
The peak dates back to October 2025, when bitcoin hit its record of $126,000. A year later, it is trading at around $83,000, Journal du Coin reports. The same pile of bitcoins is therefore worth considerably less, even though no one has sold anything.
The count itself calls for caution. According to the Arkham Intelligence tracker cited by Journal du Coin, addresses linked to federal agencies held around 325,000 bitcoins in early October, then 306,800 after the October 8 transfers. On top of that come $126 million in USDT, $63 million in WBTC, and $31 million in BNB. Arkham counts every address linked to an agency, from the FBI to the DEA. A public records request filed in March 2025, by contrast, attributed only 28,988 BTC to the U.S. Marshals Service. For Journal du Coin, the gap comes down to the counting method, not to hidden sales.
An executive order that locks the vault
It all starts with the executive order signed by Donald Trump on March 6, 2025. It creates the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and places confiscated BTC in it, prohibiting their liquidation. Previously, the government sold off its seizures as they came, through U.S. Marshals auctions. Altcoins are placed in a separate structure, called the Digital Asset Stockpile, which can still be sold.
The order has an operational limit: it provides for acquisition strategies at no cost to taxpayers, but does not unlock any budget line for purchases. The reserve therefore grows only at the pace of confiscations. On October 14, 2025, the U.S. justice system thus initiated the forfeiture of 127,271 BTC from the head of the Prince Group, who was arrested in Cambodia in January 2026. It is the largest seizure in its history, according to Journal du Coin, and these bitcoins alone are worth more than $10 billion at the October 12, 2026 price.
The coins are moving, however. On October 8, the U.S. government moved 12,267 bitcoins, worth around $1.01 billion, from a wallet tied to the Bitfinex hack. No deposit on an exchange followed. The day before, Coinbase Prime had received 3,200 BTC and $119 million in USDT, but the company also serves as a custodian for institutions. The theory of a disguised liquidation “doesn't hold up well,” Journal du Coin concludes.
Sell or hold: two choices that came at a cost
The outlet sets this against past sales. Before 2025, the government sold around 195,000 bitcoins through court proceedings, for total proceeds of $366 million. In March 2025, White House crypto adviser David Sacks put the shortfall at more than $17 billion, when bitcoin was still worth $89,000. At the October 12 price, those 195,000 bitcoins would be worth around $16.2 billion, Journal du Coin calculates, an amount on the same order as the loss in value absorbed by the public treasury since the peak.
In other words, yesterday's sales deprived the government of part of the rally, and holding now exposes it to the decline. A public bitcoin treasury carries bitcoin's price risk, without the government having to place a single order.
And for a central bank?
For Swiss readers, the American episode raises a question rather than answering it: would a central bank like the SNB have an interest in holding part of its reserves in bitcoin, given that such an asset can lose a third of its value in a year without any decision being taken? The U.S. case is also a special one: its reserve is fed by seizures, not purchases. Above all, it shows that the value of such a treasury depends entirely on the market.
Sources: “The United States has lost more than $15 billion in bitcoin without selling anything,” Journal du Coin (with Arkham Intelligence data cited by the outlet).
