US Government claims to have “emptied” a billion dollars of Bitcoin from Iranian sources – how many other “secure” wallets of hostile governments, drug smugglers/ etc could also be "emptied"
Switch to “cold storage” required?
From here h/t CITIZEN FREE PRESS
BTC is perhaps not so secure as it seems?
From Brave AI:
“Cumulative Seizures: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced in late May 2026 that the US has seized approximately $1 billion in Iranian cryptocurrency assets to date under “Operation Economic Fury.” This includes a major freeze of $344 million in USDT (Tether) on the Tron blockchain in April 2026.
Total Holdings: Estimates suggest Iran holds roughly $7.7 billion in digital assets, with about 50% attributed to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the remainder held by regular Iranians.
Ongoing Campaign: The seizures are part of a broader campaign targeting the IRGC, its proxies, and shadow banking networks. While the US has frozen specific wallets linked to the regime, including those connected to the Central Bank of Iran, it has not confiscated the entirety of Iran’s crypto reserves.
“Under Executive Order 14233 signed in March 2025, the government established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and explicitly prohibited the sale or liquidation of seized Bitcoin, requiring it to be held as a permanent reserve asset.
“The reserve currently holds approximately 200,000 BTC (valued between $15–20 billion), which will only grow through future seizures or potential budget-neutral asset swaps, not through liquidation. “
“The Bitcoin network itself has never been hacked and remains secure, but Bitcoin held in wallets or on exchanges can be stolen.
“The Bitcoin blockchain relies on decentralized consensus and Proof-of-Work, making direct attacks like 51% attacks economically and technically prohibitive due to the massive computational power required. “
“To protect assets, users should use cold storage (hardware wallets) for long-term holding, enable two-factor authentication (2FA), and never share private keys or seed phrases. Unlike the network, stolen Bitcoin from a compromised wallet is irreversible because there is no central authority to reverse transactions. “
Onwards!
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