US Government Just Sent $240M in Bitcoin to Coinbase.

The U.S. government appears to be selling more Bitcoin, with a known federal wallet address sending another 3,940 BTC ($240 million) to Coinbase on Wednesday.

The move to Coinbase Prime—the exchange’s institutional platform—was immediately picked up by blockchain sleuths, highlighting a blockchain transfer at 1pm ET for just $18 in fees.

Expert opinions were split regarding where the government obtained the transferred Bitcoin.

According to on-chain sleuth ZachXBT’s Telegram channel, the funds were part of the reclaimed Bitcoin from the “Silk Road hack.” After the infamous darknet marketplace shutdown in 2013, the Justice Department tracked down the hacker and seized 50,676 BTC, which the government has been selling off in batches ever since.

Aside from Silk Road, many of the government’s coins were reclaimed from 2016 Bitfinex hacker Razzlekhan in 2022. But Blockchain data platform Arkham Intelligence says the coins stolen today came from neither of those sources.

“This BTC was originally seized from narcotics trafficker Banmeet Singh, and forfeited at trial in January 2024,” the firm tweeted on Thursday.

#btc #bitcoin #btcanalysis #binance #salmankhanwazir @Salman Khan Wazir