According to data from Arkham, 29,800 Bitcoins (worth approximately $2 billion) were transferred last night from wallet addresses tagged to the US government (Silk Road Seizure), which ended up going to two new addresses:
bc1qngydl7hmgdtmuqjmtsyj3pcwszv0yn5mj6kz4c (19,800 Bitcoins)
bc1qlap8hkt9genaljz5nt2zlehhudx63zlahr2zek (10,000 Bitcoins)
The Bitcoins were not transferred directly to the exchange, and the exact purpose of the asset transfer cannot be determined. However, Arkham said that 10,000 BTC should be deposited in institutional custody services.
UPDATE: The U.S. Government has split the $2B Bitcoin into two addresses:10,000 BTC ($669.35M): bc1qlap8hkt9genaljz5nt2zlehhudx63zlahr2zek19,800 BTC ($1.33B): bc1qngydl7hmgdtmuqjmtsyj3pcwszv0yn5mj6kz4cWe believe this represents a 10,000 BTC deposit to an institutional… https://t.co/0aULBXGd8P pic.twitter.com/RTwtaqvMmM
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) July 29, 2024
Many are blaming this deal from the U.S. government for Bitcoin’s drop last night. However, the time point for the transfer by the US government is 00:18, but at this time Bitcoin has already fallen from a high of US$70,000 to US$67,000. Judging from the time point, it does not seem to match, but it cannot be ruled out that it is in cooperation with the US government. The possibility for the service provider of the liquidation operation to first sell in the market and then execute the Bitcoin transfer.
On the other hand, the bankrupt exchange Mt Gox also transferred 0.02 BTC three hours ago, which is suspected to be a test transaction by a predator. As of now, Mt Gox still holds 80,000 bitcoins, with a total value of approximately 5.3 billion. US dollars.
Two back-to-back on-chain transactions related to potentially huge sell-offs have put tremendous pressure on the market. Bitcoin has recouped gains from the past two days, falling back to $66,000 levels.
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