Patrick Witt just shut down speculation about the Samourai seizure. No sale happened, and the 57.5 $BTC won't be liquidated—it's staying in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve under Executive Order 14233.
On-chain sleuths saw the bitcoin move to Coinbase Prime back in November and assumed the worst. The wallet went to zero, which normally means liquidation. But custody transfers look identical to sales on the blockchain. You can't tell the difference without internal records.
The real story isn't whether they sold. It's that they're publicly committing to not selling, even when the legal path of least resistance would've been liquidation under traditional forfeiture rules. Old DOJ playbook would've auctioned it months ago. This reserve mandate is holding, at least for now.
