White House Says Seized Samourai Bitcoin Will Stay on Government Balance Sheet

A policy test for Washington’s Bitcoin strategy just resolved quietly: the Bitcoin taken from Samourai Wallet’s developers won’t be sold. A White House official said Friday that nearly $6.4 million in seized BTC will be held as part of the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, not liquidated. That answer addresses weeks of speculation that New York prosecutors intended to cash out the coins despite the president’s order to accumulate seized Bitcoin on the federal balance sheet.

The confusion stemmed from a November asset agreement signed by Samourai’s Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill. The document authorized the U.S. Marshals Service to take custody of the Bitcoin, sell it immediately, and send proceeds to the Justice Department’s Assets Forfeiture Fund. On its face, that language appeared to conflict with the president’s March 2025 executive order creating a federal Bitcoin reserve built from forfeitures.

Patrick Witt, who leads the President’s Digital Assets Council, said the Department of Justice confirmed to him that the Samourai-linked BTC “has not been and will not be liquidated,” citing Executive Order 14233. Instead, it will remain on the government’s books as part of the reserve.

The underlying case remains contentious. Rodriguez and Hill pleaded guilty last year to operating an unlicensed money transmission business tied to Samourai, a privacy-focused Bitcoin tool. Initiated under the Biden DOJ and continued under the Trump DOJ, the prosecution ended with a five-year sentence for Rodriguez—the statutory maximum—and four years for Hill. Both began serving their sentences earlier this month.

The legal fight intersects with politics. The president has courted a crypto-friendly image, and last month he said he would review potential pardons for the Samourai developers, asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to take a closer look. No clemency has followed. Prediction market Myriad currently assigns about a 7.5% probability of a pardon before February.

Supporters of the developers argued Manhattan prosecutors were ignoring White House policy—first by pursuing the case, and second by gearing up to sell forfeited Bitcoin. The latest White House stance undercuts the latter claim: whatever the intent behind the paperwork, the BTC remains intact and will be earmarked for the reserve.

The more important story here is execution risk inside government. An executive order can change policy overnight; agency playbooks often take months to catch up. Boilerplate forfeiture language that routes assets to auction and then to the Assets Forfeiture Fund made sense before March 2025. After EO 14233, those defaults need to be rewritten across U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the U.S. Marshals Service to prevent policy drift and mixed signals.

Why this matters for markets and builders: - Market structure: Keeping seized BTC in a reserve removes marginal sell pressure and signals intent to treat Bitcoin as a strategic asset, even if $6.4 million is a rounding error in liquidity terms. - Operational clarity: Assigning reserve custody, publishing official reserve addresses, and standardizing interagency procedures would reduce rumor cycles and allow on-chain verification that assets aren’t moved to exchanges. - Innovation risk: Prosecuting operators of privacy tooling under “unlicensed money transmission” laws raises uncertainty for open-source developers and wallet firms. Without clear lines around facilitation and control, some teams will self-censor features that enhance user privacy. - Public interest: Channeling seized BTC into a national reserve rather than the Assets Forfeiture Fund reframes forfeiture—from financing operations to asset accumulation—raising questions about restitution, transparency, and long-run stewardship.

The Samourai episode ultimately highlights an alignment problem, not a liquidity problem. If the administration wants a durable Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, it needs harmonized SOPs at DOJ and the Marshals, clear disclosures on reserve holdings, and a credible framework for how seized crypto is classified, stored, and, if ever, deployed. The case for or against pardons is a separate debate; the mechanics of reserve-building are now the immediate test of competence.