At least 40,000 BTC have been moved on-chain from wallets connected with the US government. Glassnode first flagged the transaction, noting that these coins were obtained through seizures, and some portion had been moved to Coinbase. This has warded investors who suspect the US government could be planning a sale.
Are US Authorities Planning to Sell?
In a separate report, blockchain security platform Peckshield said 49k BTC were moved from the US government law enforcement wallet, worth over $1 billion at the current market price.
Per Glassnode, most of the bitcoins moved from the US government wallets are internal transfers. However, around 9.8k BTC worth $217 million were transferred to Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US. The fund transferred to Coinbase has particularly drawn concerns from the crypto community that it could be an antecedent for a dump, which will exert more selling pressure and possibly drag bitcoin’s price lower before the $22k support.
US Gov’t Owns More Than 144k BTC
Before the transfers, the US government’s had 144.5k BTC worth over $3 billion in the wallets, per Glassnode data.
The Department of Justice officially confirmed a historic $3.36 billion crypto seizure in November 2022. The seized assets included 50,000 BTC connected with the infamous bitcoin darknet marketplace, Silk Road. It’s uncertain whether the recently-moved bitcoins are planned for sale by the US government. However, it’s worth noting that the authorities are not strangers to selling seized cryptocurrencies. In November 2021, the Department of Justice announced plans to sell off $56 million worth of cryptocurrency it seized from the BitConnect Ponzi scheme. At the time, it said proceeds from the sale would be redirected toward repaying investors affected by the fraud.
