The 11.02 BTC, worth $814 at the time, was taken from a suspected Silk Road dealer in Charleston, S.C., marking the earliest known cryptocurrency seizure by a U.S. law enforcement agency.
The DEA seized 11.02 BTC in 2013 from a suspected Silk Road dealer in Charleston, S.C., in what is described as the first known cryptocurrency seizure by any U.S. law enforcement agency. The bitcoin was worth $814 at the time. The note adds that the U.S. government now holds billions, underscoring how small early seizures later grew into a much larger stockpile of confiscated digital assets.