A video showcasing wealth in the crypto world accidentally unveiled the mysterious disappearance of government assets worth over $40 million, possibly involving the world's largest and least transparent Bitcoin whale—the U.S. government.
In a late-night Telegram group chat, a user with the username 'Lick' uploaded a video boasting about the mountainous assets in his crypto wallet. He may not have realized that this video would become key evidence in breaching the U.S. federal asset protection program.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT tracked a wallet address holding approximately $23 million in cryptocurrency through this video. Further investigation revealed that these funds are directly related to the approximately $90 million in crypto assets seized by the U.S. government between 2024 and 2025. The true identity of 'Lick' was identified as John Daghita, the son of the president of the service provider CMDSS for the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Justice.
An investigation into a theft case involving over $40 million in seized cryptocurrency managed by the U.S. Marshals Service has begun. Shockingly, the CMDSS company led by the suspect's father is the very government contractor responsible for assisting the U.S. Marshals in managing and disposing of seized cryptocurrency assets. After the scandal broke, CMDSS quickly deleted its website and all social media accounts.
When Patrick Witt, director of the White House Crypto Council, stated that 'we are paying attention to this matter,' a larger shadow emerged: according to data from platforms like BitcoinTreasuries.NET, the U.S. government may be holding over 300,000 bitcoins, valued at over $100 billion, through multiple confiscations.
A priceless national digital treasury whose security management may rely on fragile personal relationships and traditional contracts riddled with loopholes is not only a scandal but a complete bankruptcy of the entire old world custody logic.
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01 Trust Collapse
The core of the incident lies in the deeply rooted 'centralized trust' model, which has developed fatal cracks.
The CMDSS company led by John Daghita's father is not an insignificant player but an IT service provider with long-standing contracts with the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice. It was based on this substantial 'trust' that the company secured a key contract in 2024 to assist the U.S. Marshals Service in managing the seized cryptocurrency assets.
However, this trust was easily 'familialized' and 'internalized.' The investigation pointed out that Daghita took advantage of his father's position to gain access to government cryptocurrency wallet private keys or permissions. Contractual constraints, legal provisions, and security audits—these modern governance 'armors' became meaningless in the face of intimate personal relationships.
The response from Brady McCarron, the U.S. Marshals Service's public affairs director, was only: 'Due to the ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further.' This silence reflects the government's institutional awkwardness and lag when facing such internal threats.
02 Dangerous Treasury
This theft case is like a glaring spotlight, illuminating the dangerous predicament of the U.S. government as the 'world's largest Bitcoin whale.'
According to data from the blockchain analysis platform Arkham Intelligence, as of October 2025, the on-chain cryptocurrency assets held by the U.S. government are valued at approximately $21.24 billion, of which Bitcoin accounts for over 96%, valued at about $20.42 billion. Most of these hundreds of thousands of bitcoins come from asset confiscations related to dark web markets, ransomware cases, and various financial crimes.
In March 2025, the U.S. government even officially announced the establishment of the 'strategic Bitcoin reserve' and 'U.S. digital asset treasury' through a presidential executive order, intending to incorporate these assets into the national strategy. Some analyses believe this move is a core part of the U.S. building a 'digital Bretton Woods system' aimed at further consolidating the global position of the U.S. dollar through cryptocurrency assets.
Ironically, this 'strategic reserve' aimed at reinforcing financial hegemony may rely on the fragile management of third-party contractors like CMDSS for its daily operational security. When national strategies coexist with individual vulnerabilities, the risk has been infinitely amplified by this scandal.
03 Security
ZachXBT's investigative report ruthlessly reveals the 'naked running' state of the government's cryptocurrency asset custody system. The analysis points out that the existing protocols lack core elements of institutional-grade encryption security: multi-signature verification, hardware security modules, complete audit trails, and strict employee access level controls.
The current state of security control measures and risk levels listed in the report is shocking:
· Multi-signature verification: Not implemented, risk level extremely high
· Real-time transaction monitoring: Limited, risk level high
· Hardware security modules: Unclear, risk level high
· Comprehensive audit trails: Insufficient, risk level extremely high
· Employee access restrictions: Inadequate, risk level extremely high
What is more concerning is that there are indications that the U.S. Marshals Service may not fully understand the specific quantity of cryptocurrency assets it controls. This case exposes a fundamental contradiction: the government has inherited the bloated bureaucratic management and ambiguous responsibility boundaries of the traditional financial system while trying to manage assets on the blockchain that are extremely transparent, highly liquid, and operational 24/7. This mismatch is the root of systemic risk.
04 Paradigm Revolution
When the centralized custody model fundamentally faces a trust crisis, the solution lies not in patching up but in a complete paradigm revolution. This is precisely the direction that Lista DAO represents and leads.
The core of Lista DAO is the immutable rules constructed with code, replacing human contracts vulnerable to personal feelings, corruption, and internal loopholes. It achieves transparency and automated management of assets through a decentralized autonomous organization structure and smart contracts.
· Transparency is justice: In the ecosystem of Lista DAO, all asset flows and governance decisions are recorded on-chain and visible globally. No asset transfer can be concealed behind private Telegram chats like Daghita's.
· Code is law: Asset access rights no longer depend on the position of a company president but are strictly controlled by smart contracts verified through community consensus. Multi-signature and time-lock mechanisms are the default configuration rather than luxuries that require additional application.
· Global collaboration and checks and balances: The governance of Lista DAO is jointly participated by token holders from around the world, with highly decentralized decision-making power. No single individual or family can manipulate the system, as power itself has been deconstructed and distributed by algorithms.
If the U.S. government's 'strategic Bitcoin reserve' attempts to use the containers of the old world to hold the active volcano of the new world, then Lista DAO is directly building a brand new, solid, and transparent power station on top of the volcano using its energy. It does not attempt to 'control' assets but creates an optimal habitat for self-maintaining assets, community governance, and shared risk.
05 The Future Has Arrived
This $40 million theft case is by no means just a criminal act. It is a footnote of an era, declaring that the traditional asset custody model based on closed authority and personal trust has come to an end in the digital asset era.
The U.S. government holds Bitcoin worth hundreds of billions while being in a panic over the theft of several tens of millions. This itself is a huge metaphor. It indicates that without a management philosophy and technical framework that matches the asset attributes, no matter how large the reserve is, it is a castle built on sand.
The future kingdom of digital assets does not belong to those institutions with the most cold wallet vaults but to those organizations that can construct the most trustworthy, the most transparent, and the most resilient on-chain governance protocols.
What Lista DAO is doing is precisely defining the standards of this future. It proves that true security does not come from higher walls and fewer informed individuals, but from more open verification and broader participation. When every participant is a supervisor, and every line of code is rigorously tested, assets can achieve true freedom and security.
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After the scandal broke, CMDSS quickly cleared its team information from its website, trying to erase traces. Meanwhile, every line of code, every governance vote, and every asset change of Lista DAO is eternally etched on the blockchain, open for scrutiny by all.
The former represents the frantic concealment of the old order, while the latter represents the calm and fearless nature of the new world. The future of asset management is already clearly visible.
