On June 26, the U.S. authorities despatched 3,940 Bitcoins to Coinbase Prime, an institutional buying and selling platform owned by Coinbase. Blockchain analytics agency Arkham Intelligence flagged the transaction.
Simply now: 🇺🇸 The US authorities despatched 3,940 #bitcoin Coinbase is value $241 million 👀 pic.twitter.com/m14HpdeJ0s
— Bitcoin Journal (@BitcoinMagazine) June 26, 2024
The transferred Bitcoins have been initially seized from convicted drug trafficker Banmeet Singh in early 2024.
As a part of his conviction, Singer confiscated greater than 8,100 Bitcoins, value roughly $150 million on the time, from U.S. authorities.
Whereas the current switch of practically 4,000 Bitcoins is critical, it represents solely a small portion of the entire quantity of Bitcoin held by the federal government. Knowledge reveals that the U.S. authorities at the moment owns roughly 214,000 Bitcoins value greater than $13 billion, making it the most important nationwide holder of Bitcoin on this planet.
A lot of the authorities’s Bitcoin comes from seizures associated to the shuttered darknet market Silk Street. The notorious Bitfinex hack of 2016 additionally contributed to those stashes.
The transfer to Coinbase suggests the federal government could also be seeking to unload a few of its long-dormant Bitcoin reserves. This heightened issues in regards to the value influence, just like the current German authorities sell-off.
Nevertheless, in comparison with the every day Bitcoin buying and selling quantity, the buying and selling quantity to date is comparatively small. The U.S. authorities nonetheless holds the overwhelming majority of seized Bitcoins, which at the moment are value billions extra because of the fast rise in Bitcoin costs.
