[sebastienros]

Based on the current price it makes roughly 25K bitcoins, and using the current BUY backlog on MtGox, selling them would push the price back to $550. However such a volume will certainly create a panic wave and it could go below that.

If they are clever, they won't put everything on the market like this.

[icey]

Why would the feds care about crashing BTC? If anything, it seems like it might be a desirable outcome for them.

[Crito]

Because they want the money. Same reason they auction off the cars of suspected drug dealers, instead of just handing them out at random.

[mmanfrin]

You mean those police auctions that advertise how cheap you can get cars?

Selling at the immediate price they can get in a very volatile vehicle is not 'handing them out at random'.

[Crito]

Cars at auctions are typically pretty damn cheap. That happens because there is risk for the buyer when buying a car at auction.

If cars at police auctions were unnaturally cheap, everyone would be making a killing with arbitrage. (To be clear, many people do, but as more people get in on that, prices at police auctions go up... the balance that is struck gets you relatively close to the legitimate value of a car at a police auction).

Trust me, they love that money. They use it to buy fun new toys for themselves. That's when the property itself isn't their new toy: http://www.clumsycrooks.com/media/files18/pictures/drug_deal...