US Marshals Service Chooses Anchorage Digital for Custody of Seized Digital Assets

Anchorage Digital said it will also provide “such activities as accounting, customer management, audit compliance and managing blockchain forks.”

By Tanzeel Akhtar, Danny Nelson

Jul 28, 2021 at 6:32 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 1:32 p.m. UTC

Tanzeel Akhtar

Danny Nelson

The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), a part of the Department of Justice, is now using Anchorage Digital for the custody of its trove of tainted seized digital assets.

In an announcement Wednesday, Anchorage Digital said after a yearlong bidding process the law enforcement agency USMS Asset Forfeiture Division will be using its custodial services.

CoinDesk reported in April that crypto custodian BitGo was set to manage the USMS digital assets under a $4.5 million contract. But that deal appears to have fallen through.

"We are unable to comment on BitGo, but Anchorage participated in more than a yearlong process, and in the end, we were chosen," a spokesperson from Anchorage told CoinDesk. "There are many factors at play when it comes to a decision like the DOJ’s.”

Among its actions in dismantling organized crime operations, the USMS seizes assets that are the “proceeds of, or [are] used to facilitate, federal crimes.”

Recently, the USMS has seized more digital assets in its work.

Anchorage Digital said that it will also provide “such activities as accounting, customer management, audit compliance, managing blockchain forks, wallet creation, transformation of token assets into coin assets, etc., as well as future actions associated with the virtual currency forfeiture process.”

Representatives of USMS and BitGo did not immediately respond to CoinDesk.

UPDATE (July 28, 18:46 UTC): Updated to clarify description of USMS in the first paragraph.

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