A Bitcoin (BTC) address that received 10,000 BTC from a US government wallet two weeks ago moved its entire supply to a Coinbase Prime deposit wallet today, according to to data in the chain.
The BTC involved in the transaction is part of the crypto seized from the now-defunct dark web market Silk Road. The amount corresponds to more than $592 million and was moved to a Coinbase Prime hot wallet.
On April 2, the US government moved 31,800 BTC to another wallet and has since distributed this amount to different addresses.
Remarkably, according to to the on-chain data platform Arkham Intelligence, the US government still owns more than $1 billion in Silk Road-related BTC.
US authorities seized 50,000 BTC linked to the Silk Road when they arrested James Zhong in November 2022. Zhong is accused of hacking into the dark web market in 2012 and stealing the seized amount.
The last known selling move involving Silk Road’s BTC supply occurred in March 2023, when the US sold 9,861.17 BTC.
Resilience amid a potential ‘government dump’
‘Government dump’ moves became infamous within the crypto community after the German government sold nearly 50,000 BTC seized after shutting down piracy platform Movie2k. The episode lasted 23 days and caused the price of Bitcoin to fall 17% between mid-June and mid-July.
This time, however, Bitcoin is showing resilience amid the US government movement. Despite a decline of 4% in the past 24 hours, the price variation over the past hour is positive: 0.5%.
A report published by CoinGecko in late July revealed that governments around the world hold nearly 483,400 BTC, with the US government taking the top rank with a total supply of 213,297 BTC.
Removing 10,000 BTC from the recent US government move and considering the current price of $59,160.64, the total amount held by sovereign states is almost $28 billion.
Bitcoin Market Data
At the time of printing 20:18 UTC on August 14, 2024Bitcoin is number 1 in terms of market capitalization and so is its price down 3% in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin has a market capitalization of $1.16 trillion with a 24-hour trading volume of $30.57 billion. Learn more about Bitcoin ›
Summary of the crypto market
At the time of printing 20:18 UTC on August 14, 2024the total crypto market is valued at € $2.08 trillion with a 24-hour volume of $69.15 billion. Bitcoin’s dominance currently stands at 55.72%. Learn more about the crypto market ›
