US Government Transferred 10,000 Bitcoin Seized from Silk Road to Coinbase Prime Account

• The US Government transferred close to $600 million in bitcoin to a Coinbase Prime deposit wallet.
• Contrary to popular belief in the crypto circles, this transaction to an exchange may not imply selling activity.

The US Government moved 10,000 bitcoins, worth $593.91 million, to a Coinbase Prime deposit wallet on August 14. These assets were seized from the darknet marketplace Silk Road.

The wallet transferring these funds, ‘bc1qlap8hkt9genaljz5nt2zlehhudx63zlahr2zek,’ received the bitcoin from another one titled U.S. Government on the Arkham Intelligence platform. That transaction occurred two weeks ago.

The details behind the transaction committed this past Wednesday came to light on X via Arkham. “BREAKING: 10K Silk Road BTC ($593.5M) moved to Coinbase Prime,” a post read. It did not end there, “Wallet bc1ql received 10K BTC from a known US Government wallet 2 weeks ago. This BTC has just been sent on to 33J, a Coinbase Prime deposit wallet.”

Moving large amounts of assets to exchanges often means the entities behind the transactions will sell their holdings. However, that may not be the case here. The US Marshals Service announced a collaboration with Coinbase over a month ago, seeking to use Coinbase Prime services “to safeguard and trade” its digital assets. Coinbase Prime is meant for institutional usage, but multiple US law enforcement agencies have adopted it.

The US DOJ Got Hold of This Bitcoin Stash in 2022

The bitcoin moved to Coinbase is part of a confiscation made by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in 2022 from James Zhong, who stole the assets from the Silk Road. The agency traced 50,676.17851897 bitcoin in his possession from the theft. It previously sold 9,861 bitcoins for $216 million in 2023. While the government planned to sell more that year, it did not.

The US government currently holds over $12 billion in digital assets in its portfolio. Beyond bitcoin, its wallet comprises significant quantities of ETH, USDT, BNB, WBTC, and other assets.