The US government conducted a series of Bitcoin transfers yesterday (2/29), which has attracted attention from the market. In response, the US Department of Justice confirmed that these transactions were carried out for “law enforcement purposes”.
(Previous summary:
US government selling 15,000 BTC at a high point? Confiscated Bitcoin value skyrocketed to $12 billion
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(Background information:
US government seizes an additional 8,100 Bitcoins, second only to Satoshi Nakamoto in BTC holdings!
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Table of Contents:
US government transfers funds seized in the Bitfinex hack
US sells 12,719 BTC within a year
Will it cause drastic fluctuations in the market?
The US government transferred over 15,000 Bitcoins worth nearly $1 billion on February 29th, causing market attention. According to an update released by CoinDesk early this morning, the US Department of Justice has confirmed that these transactions were carried out for “legitimate law enforcement purposes”.
Although the official purpose has not been explained, it can be speculated with a high probability that it is in preparation for an auction. Therefore, the Bitcoins were transferred to a new cold wallet to facilitate handing them over to the winning bidder after the auction ends.
According to data from the cryptocurrency intelligence platform Arkham, the US government wallets involved in the transfers yesterday were marked as “Bitfinex Hacker Seized Funds”, indicating that these Bitcoins were seized by the US government from the Bitfinex exchange hacking case.
In August 2016, Russian entrepreneur Ilya Lichtenstein and his rapper wife Heather Morgan stole up to 119,756 Bitcoins from the Bitfinex exchange. Several years later, in February 2022, both of them were arrested by the US Department of Justice and 94,643 Bitcoins were confiscated.
Related reading:
“Truth of the 120,000 Bitcoin Theft” – New York money laundering couple admits to attacking Bitfinex hacker
US sells 12,719 BTC within a year
In addition to the Bitcoins seized from the Bitfinex hacker case, the US government also confiscated 69,369 BTC from the largest darknet black market Silk Road in November 2020, as well as 51,326 BTC from Silk Road hacker James Zhong in March 2022. Currently, these BTC are mainly stored in encrypted, password-protected offline cold wallets controlled by the US Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, or other institutions.
The US government’s recent actions of selling Bitcoin include selling 9,861 Bitcoins on Coinbase in February last year, and selling 2,858 Bitcoins at the end of January this year, totaling 12,719 Bitcoins.
Previously, the US Marshals Service stated that the government will sell crypto assets in batches rather than all at once to minimize adverse effects on the market. Jarod Koopman, the Director of the Cybercrime Investigation Division of the US Internal Revenue Service, also previously stated:
The current BTC holdings of the US government, according to Arkham data, still amount to as much as 215,000 Bitcoins, with a total value of $13.24 billion, making it the world’s third-largest Bitcoin whale.
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