{"id":864234,"date":"2025-07-22T19:11:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T00:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/no-the-uk-government-isnt-selling-7-billion-in-btc\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T19:11:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T00:11:33","slug":"no-the-uk-government-isnt-selling-7-billion-in-btc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/no-the-uk-government-isnt-selling-7-billion-in-btc\/","title":{"rendered":"No, the UK Government Isn\u2019t Selling $7 Billion in BTC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"page\">\n<div id=\"content_box\">\n<header>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" alt src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b5363381b9fb67e5d83a7331644feccb6ac7671ad22cc5b5555df342567c3bb?s=32&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g\"  height=\"32\" width=\"32\" decoding=\"async\"><\/p>\n<p><span><span>By <a href=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/author\/mahu_bs\" title=\"Posts by Mark Hunter\" rel=\"author\">Mark Hunter<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<p>2 days ago<span>Mon Jul 21 2025 10:19:53<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<p><img width=\"1300\" height=\"890\" src=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/No-the-UK-Government-Isnt-Selling-7-Billion-in-BTC.png\" alt=\"No,-the-UK-Government-Isn\u2019t-Selling-$7-Billion-in-BTC\" title decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-layzr=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/No-the-UK-Government-Isnt-Selling-7-Billion-in-BTC.png\">\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span><span>Reading Time: <\/span> <span> 2<\/span> <span>minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span>The UK government is reportedly considering selling around $7 billion in seized bitcoin to help plug a budget shortfall<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span>Reports have suggested Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing to liquidate crypto assets imminently<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span>Critics have rebutted the claims, pointing out that the bitcoin remains under legal dispute and calling it \u201cclickbait\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>A recent <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2025\/07\/19\/britain-sitting-billions-bitcoin-can-rescue-reeves\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span>story<\/span><\/a><span> in the British newspaper <\/span><i><span>The Telegraph<\/span><\/i><span> claimed that the UK is \u201csitting on a \u00a35 billion <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/crypto-essentials-an-overview-of-bitcoin\"><span>bitcoin<\/span><\/a><span> stash\u201d that Chancellor Rachel Reeves could liquidate to support public finances. The piece implied that the government is gearing up to sell the assets, seized from a 2018 Chinese investment scam, in order to shore up finances damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, such claims have been doused with cold water by those in the know, who have criticized the article as being \u201cclickbait.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span>No Windfall for Reeves<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>According to <\/span><i><span>The Telegraph<\/span><\/i><span>, Britain\u2019s Labour government could be sitting on a crypto treasure chest of over 61,000 BTC, potentially worth \u00a35 billion ($7 billion). It suggested Reeves has \u201cthe chance\u201d to offload these funds to fill a \u00a320 billion budget hole ahead of her first major financial statement in the autumn. The piece framed the situation as both a political opportunity and a risk, warning that failure to sell at the right time could cost the country dearly if bitcoin prices fall.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However, crypto policy advocates and legal analysts were quick to dismiss the article as overhyped:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">No new info, no depth, just sensationalism over substance.<\/p>\n<p>The Telegraph just dropped another lazy, clickbait Bitcoin article.<\/p>\n<p>It tries to link the UK\u2019s budget deficit to government crypto procurement and floats the idea of selling 61,250 bitcoin right in the middle of a bull\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lQ8NIHGbbw\">pic.twitter.com\/lQ8NIHGbbw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Decentra Suze (@DecentraSuze) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DecentraSuze\/status\/1946839682077077811?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 20, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>As Decentra Suze pointed out, the bitcoins referenced were <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/double-seizures-see-3-8-billion-in-crypto-seized-by-police\"><span>seized from Jian Wen and associates<\/span><\/a><span> in a 2018 Chinese fraud case and are still entangled in ongoing restitution claims. Under UK law, the government cannot profit from confiscated assets until all victims have been compensated, a process that could take years. In addition, operational challenges remain: the Home Office has yet to implement a reliable custodial and liquidation framework after cancelling a key \u00a340 million tender earlier this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>While it is true that the UK government holds a large amount of seized bitcoins, the suggestion that Reeves can simply sell it to balance the books is misleading, with legal, logistical, and moral hurdles all standing in the way. The real story is not of a ready-to-deploy crypto windfall, but of a complex and delayed asset recovery process with no guaranteed outcome, and certainly no immediate fiscal fix.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/no-the-uk-government-isnt-selling-7-billion-in-btc?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=no-the-uk-government-isnt-selling-7-billion-in-btc\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Mark Hunter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mark Hunter 2 days agoMon Jul 21 2025 10:19:53 Reading Time: 2 minutes The UK government is reportedly considering selling around $7 billion in seized bitcoin to help plug a budget shortfall Reports have suggested Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing to liquidate crypto assets imminently Critics have rebutted the claims, pointing out that the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":864235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[284,688],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-864234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-government","8":"category-isnt"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}