Key Points
- The U.S. government has transferred 30,175 Bitcoins, previously seized from Silk Road, to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
- With the current Bitcoin value, the transaction is worth approximately $2 billion.
The U.S. government has recently moved a significant quantity of Bitcoins, which were previously confiscated from the infamous darknet platform, Silk Road.
Transfer Details
According to data from Blockchair, a U.S. government wallet transferred 30,175 Bitcoins (BTC) to the cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, on April 2. Considering the current price of Bitcoin, which is around $65,000, the transaction is estimated to be worth approximately $2 billion.
Blockchain analyst ZachXBT pointed out that another small transaction of 0.001 BTC, valued at $69, was also moved to a Coinbase deposit address, seemingly as a test transaction.
Previous Government Transactions
The last confirmed sale by the U.S. government, which seized approximately 50,000 BTC from the Silk Road website in late 2022, was in March 2023. At that time, it sold 9,861 coins valued at $216 million. In January 2024, government officials announced plans to sell a portion of the cryptocurrency associated with the Silk Road, specifically mentioning assets totalling 2,934 BTC.
In February, the U.S. government moved 15,085 seized Bitcoins from the compromised crypto exchange Bitfinex, valued at about $947 million, to unknown addresses. Initially, a test transfer of one BTC was made, followed by another transfer of 2,817 BTC worth $172.7 million. From a second wallet, 12,267 BTC valued at $748.5 million were moved.
Another U.S. government wallet reportedly holds about 94,600 Bitcoins confiscated from Bitfinex hackers, according to Arkham. CryptoQuant analysts estimate that the U.S. government holds 210,392 BTC, valued at $14.4 billion, making it one of the largest Bitcoin holders.
The U.S. Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, and other agencies last sold a single Bitcoin in July 2023. Since then, the government’s unrealized profits from Bitcoin have increased 2.4 times.
