U.S. Government Transfers $2 Billion in Bitcoin

A wallet labeled as belonging to the U.S. government transferred $2 billion worth of bitcoin to an unidentified wallet on Monday, according to Arkham Intelligence data.

The nearly 28,000 BTC (valued at over $2 billion) appears to be tied to funds the U.S. Department of Justice previously confiscated from the now-defunct dark web market Silk Road. Late last year, a U.S. appeals court finalized a mandate that formalized the forfeiture of 69,370 bitcoin and other crypto connected to Silk Road.

About an hour after the transfer was complete, the U.S. government appeared to split the bitcoin into two separate addresses, allocating 19,800 bitcoin (about $1.3 billion) into one address and 10,000 bitcoin (about $670 million) to another, according to a post from Arkham Intelligence.

“We believe this represents a 10,000 BTC deposit to an institutional custody/service,” said the data services firm.

A U.S. government crypto wallet sent nearly 2,000 BTC to a Coinbase Prime hot wallet in April. The U.S. Marshals Service announced it is paying Coinbase $32.5 million for custodial services.

The DOJ seized the Silk Road-associate bitcoin in 2020 and then began seeking the official forfeiture of the crypto, which at the time was valued at over $1 billion. According to Arkham Intelligence, the U.S. government’s crypto portfolio still holds more than $12 billion in bitcoin.

Over the weekend, former U.S. President Donald Trump once again said he would be willing to commute Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht’s sentence if re-elected president.