On Tuesday (December 3), Bitcoin fell below $96,000 and remained weak, dipping as low as $94,395. The U.S. government is transferring $1.9 billion worth of Bitcoin seized from Silk Road to a Coinbase Prime wallet, triggering panic selling. However, Wall Street's largest publicly traded whale, MicroStrategy, stuck to its strategy and invested an additional $1.5 billion to buy more Bitcoin.
Amid the downward volatility of Bitcoin, according to CoinGlass data, the total liquidation amount in the cryptocurrency market over the past 24 hours reached $547 million, with long positions liquidating at $360 million and short positions at $179 million, affecting over 190,000 people.
According to data from blockchain analysis firm Arkham Intelligence, on Monday, a wallet linked to the U.S. government transferred approximately 19,800 bitcoins into the Coinbase Prime deposit wallet address. These bitcoins were seized during the U.S. investigation into James Zhong in 2021, who was later convicted of telecom fraud related to the Silk Road marketplace.
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had seized over 50,000 bitcoins from Zhong, including 'coins stored on a single-board computer, which was placed under a blanket in a popcorn can.' Since then, the U.S. government has transferred many bitcoins to different wallets, but currently, it still holds bitcoins worth approximately $18 billion.
It is currently unclear whether the transfer of these bitcoins is part of a government transaction or a strategy to sell these funds. U.S. lawmakers, including Senator Cynthia Lummis and elected President Donald Trump, have suggested establishing a 'Bitcoin National Strategic Reserve' in the U.S. through legislation.
The U.S. Marshals Service (the federal agency responsible for seizing cryptocurrency and other assets involved in criminal activities) stated in July that it would collaborate with Coinbase Prime to manage tokens related to asset forfeiture. Coinbase is still facing a civil lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June 2023.
At its peak, the Silk Road marketplace facilitated user transactions worth millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, allowing users to purchase illegal items such as weapons, drugs, and stolen credit card information. The platform's founder, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2015.
Since the 2024 U.S. elections, many in the cryptocurrency industry have called on Trump to lessen Ulbricht's sentence. Trump promised to do so 'on the first day of his term,' but it is worth noting that he had the opportunity to do this during his first term.
Despite the U.S. government's triggering of panic selling, Wall Street's publicly traded whale remains committed to its buying strategy, providing support to the crypto market.
MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor announced on Twitter that as Bitcoin briefly dropped below $96,000, the company purchased 15,400 bitcoins at an average price of $95,976 with $1.5 billion in funds.
Saylor wrote: 'MicroStrategy has acquired 15,400 bitcoins at approximately $95,976 each for about $1.5 billion, achieving a Bitcoin yield of 38.7% year-to-date and 63.3% since the beginning of the year. As of December 2, 2024, we have acquired 402,100 bitcoins at a price of about $23.4 billion, at approximately $58,263 each.'
Bitcoin Technical Analysis
Economies.com states that Bitcoin prices are trading with significant negative sentiment, attacking the support line of a bullish channel and attempting to stay below it, suggesting that the remainder of the day will turn downward, paving the way toward $94,655, followed by a major negative position at $91,852.35.
Therefore, unless the price successfully breaks through $96,325 and maintains above that level, future trading days will show a bearish tendency.
The current expected trading range is between the support level of $93,500 and the resistance level of $97,000.
