The U.S. government has transferred 10,000 Bitcoin, valued at nearly $600 million, to Coinbase Prime.
The U.S. government has transferred 10,000 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $600 million, to a Coinbase Prime wallet, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence. The Bitcoin in question is part of a larger cache of digital assets seized by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in connection with the Silk Road dark web marketplace.
BREAKING: 10K Silk Road BTC ($593.5M) moved to Coinbase Prime
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) August 14, 2024
Wallet bc1ql received 10K BTC from a known US Government wallet 2 weeks ago. This BTC has just been sent on to 33J, a Coinbase Prime deposit wallet. pic.twitter.com/kNLsiJzL95
The transfer, which occurred on Wednesday, was initiated from a wallet that had received the Bitcoin roughly two weeks earlier from another wallet labeled as belonging to the DOJ. This transfer is likely linked to the $2 billion worth of Bitcoin that the government confiscated as part of its investigation into the now-defunct Silk Road.
Arkham Intelligence reported that the wallet, identified as holding Silk Road-related funds, moved the 10,000 Bitcoin to Coinbase Prime, an institutional platform of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. While deposits to exchanges often signal an intent to sell assets, it remains unclear whether the transfer was made for liquidation or for custodial purposes.
In a partnership announced last month, the U.S. Marshals Service, a division of the DOJ, revealed that it had teamed up with Coinbase Prime to "safeguard and trade" large-cap digital assets, including Bitcoin. This partnership could suggest that the recent transfer is part of ongoing efforts to manage and possibly liquidate seized digital assets.
The DOJ's seizure of Silk Road-related Bitcoin dates back to 2022 when it confiscated over 50,000 BTC and arrested James Zhong, who was accused of manipulating the marketplace's transaction system in 2012. Zhong pleaded guilty to wire fraud, leading to the forfeiture of the assets.
In March 2023, the government sold 9,861 Bitcoin for $216 million as part of its strategy to dispose of the seized assets. According to court filings, the government had planned to sell the remaining Bitcoin in four tranches throughout the year, although no further sales were publicly confirmed after March.
Currently, wallets linked to the U.S. government are estimated to hold approximately $12 billion worth of Bitcoin and smaller amounts of other seized cryptocurrencies, according to Arkham Intelligence.
