Governments Eye Turning Seized Cryptocurrency Into Reserves

According to Bloomberg, more than $75 billion worth of crypto tied to illicit activity is sitting on-chain and within law-enforcement reach, including about $15 billion to $20 billion in forfeited bitcoin already held by the United States.

These holdings form the core of a new Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile, established under a March 2025 executive order.

The logic is straightforward: Rather than liquidating confiscated digital assets, the U.S. and other nations, including El Salvador, Bhutan and Sweden, are exploring whether those tokens can bolster their reserve diversification.

In the U.K., for example, roughly 61,000 bitcoin seized in 2018 and now worth nearly $7 billion underscores…