Nearly $2 billion price of forfeited bitcoin (BTC) linked to the Silk Road web site have been moved to crypto alternate Coinbase Prime on Monday.
A pockets tagged as “U.S. Government: Silk Road DOJ Confiscated Funds” transferred 19,800 bitcoin on Monday to a recent deal with with no prior historical past of transactions, blockchain knowledge by Arkham Intelligence confirmed. The funds have been then deposited to Coinbase Prime.
The switch doubtless signifies that the federal government is getting ready to promote or has already bought the belongings. Earlier situations of presidency promoting this yr sparked sizable selloffs in bitcoin, however the motion at the moment — thus far — has been extra muted, with the worth dipping a bit greater than 1% to the present $95,800 for the reason that information hit. Following this transfer, the U.S. authorities nonetheless holds $18 billion price of seized crypto belongings, per Arkham.
The Division of Justice introduced in 2022 that it seized over 50,000 BTC and arrested James Zhong, who pleaded responsible to wire fraud after the federal government alleged he manipulated the transaction system of darkish internet market Silk Road in 2012.
Final month, U.S. district courtroom of Northern California requested concerned events to “stipulate that government may liquidate some or all” of the forfeited digital belongings associated to Silk Road and holding on the funds whereas an ongoing FOIA motion resolves.
The final confirmed sale of Silk Road belongings by the federal government was in March 2023 promoting practically 10,000 BTC for $216 million, courtroom filings present. The federal government laid out plans within the submitting to promote the remaining belongings in 4 tranches throughout that yr, however there wasn’t follow-up communication about any gross sales since then. Earlier this yr, the U.S. Marshals Service, a division of the DOJ, introduced a partnership with Coinbase Prime to “safeguard and trade” the federal government’s large-cap digital belongings.
