According to Golden Finance, blockchain data from Arkham Intelligence showed that the U.S. government transferred 10,000 Silk Road-related seized bitcoins (BTC) to the exchange giant’s institutional platform Coinbase Prime on Wednesday. Analysts said that deposits to exchanges usually indicate an intention to sell assets, but in this case the transfer may be for custody reasons, as the U.S. Marshals Service, an agency under the U.S. Department of Justice, announced last month a partnership with Coinbase Prime to “protect and trade” large digital assets.

According to court documents, the last confirmed sale of Silk Road assets by the U.S. government was in March 2023, when 9,861 tokens were sold for $216 million. The government listed plans in the documents to sell the remaining assets in four tranches that year, but there have been no subsequent contracts for sales since then.