The United States government allegedly moved 4,000 Bitcoin (BTC) to Coinbase Prime, coinciding with the time when the price of the coin is dropping again.
Bitcoin Heading Back to $60K
Earlier, Bitcoin registered a slight gain, a move that suggested that it was recovering from the series of dips seen in the last few days. However, the coin has returned to its falling trend at the time of writing
Per current market data, BTC price has registered a 0.38% decrease and fell to $61,208.25. Notably, the leading crypto made this move after a wallet associated with the U.S. government was seen moving almost 4,000 BTC worth about $240 million to a Coinbase Prime address.
Note that the US government wallets deposited 3,940 $BTC($241.22M) into #Coinbase Prime 5 minutes ago.
The US government currently holds 213,546 $BTC($13.07B). pic.twitter.com/CAc87E2xFa
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) June 26, 2024
The Bitcoin holdings are assets that were seized from Silk Road narcotics trafficker Banmeet Singh at his January 2024 trial.
The movement of the coin raised suspicions of a potential selloff. These concerns are not baseless considering how the U.S. government has been selling Bitcoin from the Silk Road seizure.
The Silk Road case has captured the public attention for several years. It reached a new chapter with the sentencing of the Faraces including Ryan Farace, who was previously convicted in 2018. He was involved in manufacturing and selling Xanax pills through dark web marketplaces like Silk Road. Ryan Faraces operated under the pseudonym ‘Xanaxman.’
The government reported that Farace received over 9,138 Bitcoins for these transactions, equivalent to about $364 million.
U.S. and BTC From Silk Road
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seized $3.6 billion worth of BTC linked to illegal marketplace Silk Road in 2013. The $3.6 billion accounted for more than 50,000 BTC at the time. Almost five months later, government officials sold 9,861 Bitcoins for more than $215 million. A filing revealed that the government intended to off-load the remaining 41,000 BTC in four separate lots throughout the course of this calendar year.
By July, another 9000+ BTC were sold leaving the wallet with about 30,000 units of the coin. It was later formalized in court that the U.S. government had seized a total of 69,370 Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies linked to the Silk Road dark web marketplace. The last movement of Bitcoin by the government was spotted in April and it was worth approximately $2 billion.
If this new movement to Coinbase Prime leads to a selloff, it is not certain the level of pressure it could put on the broad crypto market.
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