Seized Bitcoin from Samourai Wallet was not sold, says White House

Source: PortaldoBitcoin Original Title: The Bitcoin seized from Samourai Wallet was not sold, says White House Original Link: The nearly US$ 6.4 million in Bitcoin seized by U.S. federal authorities from the creators of the privacy tool Samourai Wallet have not been liquidated and will be added to a national Bitcoin reserve, a White House official stated this Friday (16).

The announcement comes after concerns raised last month by lawyers and family members of the developers, who are now incarcerated, that DOJ (DOJ) prosecutors in New York were determined to liquidate the funds. Such a move would go against President Donald Trump’s federal Bitcoin reserve, established through an executive order in March, using seized Bitcoins.

A settlement agreement for asset liquidation between federal prosecutors and Samourai developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, analyzed by specialized media, included language that potentially indicated an imminent liquidation of the seized funds.

“Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill authorize the USMS to receive the Bitcoin account and liquidate it immediately in a manner determined by the USMS,” states the November agreement, referring to the U.S. Marshals Service (U.S. Marshals Service).

“Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill authorize the USMS to deposit all funds received from the Bitcoin liquidation into the Asset Forfeiture Fund as voluntary payments and for application to their monetary sentences,” says another section.

However, on Friday, Patrick Witt, executive director of President Trump’s Digital Assets Council, announced that the DOJ confirmed to him that the seized digital assets from the Samourai developers “have not been liquidated and will not be liquidated.”

According to Witt, the funds will indeed be added to the federal government’s strategic Bitcoin reserve.

Case against Samourai Wallet

Rodriguez and Hill pleaded guilty last year to a criminal charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitter due to their involvement in operating Samourai, a tool that allowed Bitcoin users to make their financial transactions private.

The case, initiated by the DOJ of the Joe Biden administration, was continued by the DOJ of the Trump administration last year. In November, Trump’s DOJ obtained a five-year prison sentence for Rodriguez, the maximum possible; Hill was sentenced to four years. Both began serving their sentences earlier this month.

The case drew particular attention among cryptocurrency and privacy advocates, concerned about its implications for the future development of privacy-related software in the United States.

The saga also caused some friction in the perception of cryptocurrency supporters regarding President Trump, who made a concentrated effort to define himself as “the crypto president” during his second term.

Last month, days before Rodriguez turned himself in to prison, questions were asked to the president about whether he would consider granting pardons to the Samourai developers. Trump said he would “review” the request and instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the matter further.

But Rodriguez and Hill surrendered to federal prison days later, where they remain.

Still, it appears that the Bitcoin was never, in fact, liquidated—regardless of the prosecutors’ intentions.

Almost a month after the president and attorney general publicly acknowledged the case, pardons for Rodriguez and Hill have not materialized.

Even after hearing the White House announcement on Friday, Rodriguez’s wife, Lauren Emily Rodriguez, said she remains skeptical about the honesty of U.S. assistant prosecutors in the Samourai case regarding what was done with her husband’s seized funds.

“After seeing all the lies and manipulations made by the AUSAs in the Samourai case, I wouldn’t doubt anything,” she said.

Meanwhile, allies of the Samourai developers argued that Manhattan prosecutors were acting in defiance of the White House’s wishes — both by liquidating seized Bitcoins contrary to the March 2025 executive order that established a federal Bitcoin reserve and, potentially, by prosecuting the developers from the beginning.