The US government has recruited the services of a cryptocurrency custodian company Anchorage Digital to handle the digital assets taken from criminals.
The United States Marshals Service (USMS), a branch of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), has picked cryptocurrency custodian Anchorage Digital to store crypto assets confiscated by law enforcement organizations, according to a blog post published on Thursday.
Cash, real estate, art, and other valuables used in the commission of a crime are seized by the USMS. The agency has been forfeiting digital assets used in illicit operations as Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies have grown in popularity.
In 2019, the USMS began looking for a partner to handle the confiscated crypto assets. Anchorage Digital, the first chartered bank for cryptocurrency, was named as USMS’s partner, according to the release.
“After more than a year-long process, we are proud to announce that Anchorage Digital has been selected as the provider of digital asset custody and financial services for the United States Marshals Service (USMS),” Anchorage Digital said in its statement. “This award speaks to both the quality of the platform we have developed and the stringent processes and procedures we have put in place around its use.”
The San Francisco-based company said it will provide the USMS with a range of cryptocurrency services, including custody, liquidation, audit compliance, management of blockchain forks, wallet creation, token asset conversion to coin assets, and actions related to virtual currency forfeiture.
“There’s no traditional bank that actually offers these services because this is extremely complex from a technical perspective,” Anchorage’s co-founder and President told Recode. “It’s very hard to store these safely. In fact, there are many, many stories of people losing access to their bitcoin and other cryptocurrency wallets and just losing access completely to them without the ability to be recovered.”
The Department of Justice said in June that it had seized 63.7 bitcoins (BTC) worth $2.3 million. The monies are said to be the result of a ransom payment made to members of the DarkSide group, which was responsible for the Colonial Pipeline attack.
