The US Department of Justice has $305 million worth of Silk Road coins stuck in the Bitcoin mempool

Bitcoin (BTC), once part of the Silk Road, is on the move — roughly four months after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) sold multimillion-dollar bitcoin on Coinbase.

A number of Silk Road bitcoin transactions were awaiting confirmation on Wednesday morning. A total of 9,825 BTC ($302.2 million) was queued to be sent to addresses associated with the DOJ.

The addresses forward the bitcoins to unused addresses. The Justice Department has previously reallocated its Silk Road holdings, so it’s too early to say it intends to sell it immediately.

Still, in March, authorities moved 9,800 BTC directly to US platform Coinbase for $21,800 per token, raising $215 million.

At the time, officials said they planned to sell another 41,500 BTC ($1.27 billion) seized in four batches by Silk Road hacker James Zhong.

Bitcoin is worth $31,600 today after losing a few hundred dollars after news of the remittances broke.

Silk Road, one of the first marketplaces to use Bitcoin payments, faltered in October 2013 when US authorities arrested founder Ross Ulbricht. The following year he was charged and eventually sentenced to consecutive life sentences plus 40 years without parole.

The DOJ’s pending Silk Road transactions are currently experiencing a confirmation delay, which may be due to insufficient transaction fees. (The transactions were later confirmed.)

One was waiting 20 minutes at the time of writing, another more than 40 minutes, with both bans unconfirmed. The DOJ appears to have set aside a meager amount, just $8 in fees, for these transactions. Bitcoin blocks are processed every 10 minutes on average.

The last time the ministry sold Silk Road-related coins, the U.S. government paid more than $215,000 in transaction fees, officials said in court filings.

A portal tracking bitcoins confiscated by the US government reveals that the Feds missed $5.6 billion by selling BTC instead of holding it.

Updated on July 12, 2023 at 11:09 am ET: Two transactions were confirmed after about an hour. A third transaction is still pending after almost two hours. Code is law.

Updated July 12, 2023 at 11:31 a.m. ET: The third transaction was completed after approximately two hours and five minutes.

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