US authorities seized 749 bitcoins related to the Silk Road drug trade this month

According to Forbes, earlier this month, prosecutors in the Western District of Texas ordered the seizure of slightly more than 749 bitcoins worth approximately $62.5 million. This command also involves hundreds of thousands of various currencies, as well as gold coins and bars. According to the US Department of Justice, these assets are related to illegal activities carried out by two men, one of whom is a drug dealer on the Silk Road and the other assisting him in laundering cryptocurrency. They transferred the Bitcoin obtained through Silk Road transactions through multiple different accounts and exchanged it for cash through LocalBitcoins. Part of the funds ultimately flowed into the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, which reported these deposits to law enforcement. This seizure indicates that although Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was granted amnesty one day after President Trump took office and has now become a free man, those who sell drugs on dark web websites are still under investigation, and the US government is still pursuing their illegal gains.