10,000 BTC, worth nearly $600 million, has been moved by the United States government to a Coinbase Prime address, sparking fear among investors that the tokens will likely be dumped.
Is The US Government Selling Its BTC?
“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,” Arkham said in a Wednesday X post.
BREAKING: 10K Silk Road BTC ($593.5M) moved to Coinbase PrimeWallet 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
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) August 14, 2024
According to the on-chain analytics firm, the funds were confiscated from the defunct Silk Road web marketplace and are currently valued at $593.91 million. The latest transfer follows a previous move of roughly 29,800 Silk Road Bitcoin, valued at nearly $2 billion, in late July.
The price of Bitcoin has tumbled from the $61.5K intraday highs earlier today. BTC was changing hands at $58,641 at press time, down 0.6% over the past 24 hours.
While deposits to a centralized exchange often signify intention to sell the assets, today’s transfer could be linked to the early July partnership between Coinbase and the U.S. Marshals Service to “safeguard and trade” U.S. government crypto assets. It’s not clear what usually happens with the BTC after arriving on Coinbase Prime.
US Gov’t Is The Largest National Holder Of Bitcoin
The US government currently holds approximately 203,200 BTC, making it the top holder of Bitcoin among world governments, with the bulk of this sum coming from various confiscations of crypto assets from bad actors. Based on today’s prices, this massive cache is valued at roughly $12.3 billion.
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump has promised not to sell any of the US government’s BTC holdings if he reclaims the White House. He also revealed to Bitcoiners at the recent Bitcoin Nashville Conference that he intends to create a “strategic Bitcoin stockpile”. On another occasion, the former U.S. president floated the possibility of paying off the government’s $35 trillion debt pile with the benchmark cryptocurrency.
