The U.S. government is in the news once again, and this time for moving 833.6 Bitcon [BTC], worth about $71.6 million, to Coinbase Prime.
Now, whenever Bitcoin is being sent to Coinbase Prime, it automatically lands in a position where they can be sold or otherwise managed through an institutional platform.
So, now the big question here is, will the government ultimately sell those BTC? And, if it happens, this move could add some short-term selling pressure to the Bitcoin market.
However, $71.6 million is relatively small compared to Bitcoin’s overall market liquidity, so by itself it would not necessarily have a major impact on BTC’s price.
What does such wallet movement mean for the crypto market?
This, along with 40,285 BNB, worth about $31.6 million, was moved through several addresses to another wallet. And then eventually the amount was sent to address 0xBE7…81E.
However, since there is no additional evidence showing that the destination is an exchange or identifying the purpose of the wallet, it is difficult to conclude that the BNB is being prepared for sale.
All this happens as the tracked wallets of the U.S. government reportedly still control roughly $28 billion worth of digital assets, including around 324,000 BTC worth $27.7 billion.
In simple words, this means that the latest $103 million movement represents only a small fraction of the government’s overall crypto portfolio. Therefore, even if these particular assets were eventually sold, the transaction would be relatively minor compared with the government’s total Bitcoin holdings.
Concerning market conditions raises eyebrows
This comes as Bitcoin was trading at $83,771.18 at press time, after a drop of 2.6% in the past 24 hours. Whereas, Binance was trading at $769.88 at press time after a drop of 1.7% in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, high market volatility wiped out $544.33 million worth of leveraged positions held by 101,395 traders in the past 24 hours.
Past instances
Well, this is not the first time such wallet movements have happened. In fact, back in June, the U.S. government reportedly moved around $350,000 worth of cryptocurrency seized from FTX and Alameda Research.
At that time, it appeared as though the assets may instead be part of the ongoing bankruptcy recovery and creditor repayment process, especially as FTX was preparing for another $2.2 billion distribution to creditors.
Final Summary
- Besides Bitcoin, 40,285 BNB, worth about $31.6 million, was moved through several addresses to another wallet.
- Despite this, the U.S. government reportedly still controls roughly $28 billion worth of digital assets.