Wallets linked to the U.S. government moved more than $100 million in Bitcoin(BTC) and BNB(BNB) on Tuesday, routing 833.6 BTC to Coinbase Prime deposit addresses. Key Points: Wallets linked t
Wallets linked to the U.S. government moved more than $100 million in Bitcoin(BTC) and BNB(BNB) on Tuesday, routing 833.6 BTC to Coinbase Prime deposit addresses.
Key Points:
- Wallets linked to the U.S. government moved about $103 million in Bitcoin and BNB on Tuesday.
- The 833.6 BTC reached Coinbase Prime deposit addresses, but no sale has been confirmed.
- The Bitcoin traces to the HashFlare fraud and Bitfinex hack cases, the BNB to Alameda Research.
Data from blockchain intelligence firm Arkhamshowed the Bitcoin, worth about $71.6 million, leaving government-labeled wallets for two addresses the firm does not label. Both passed the coins to Coinbase Prime deposit addresses within hours. A separate government-labeled wallet sent about 40,285 BNB, worth $31.63 million, through a chain of unlabeled addresses, lifting the day's total to roughly $103 million.
About 568.7 BTC came from funds forfeited by Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin, the pair behind the HashFlare cloud mining fraud case. Another 264.9 BTC traced to the 2016 Bitfinex hack, while the BNB came from assets seized from Alameda Research, the trading firm tied to collapsed exchange FTX.
On-chain analyst Sani, who runs timechainindex.com, flagged a tiny test payment to Coinbase Prime before the larger amounts followed. It was reportedly the government's first Bitcoin movement since Aug. 26. Bitcoin later fell as low as about $83,840 early Wednesday, a slide that tracked rising oil prices and a stronger dollar.
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Such transfers often stir fears of government selling.
"A transfer is not the same as a sale," market commentator Jose Rosell wrote on X, pointing to a March 2025 executive order. Coinbase Prime also provides custody, and the U.S. Marshals Service selected it in July 2024 to hold and trade large-cap assets from federal forfeiture cases. No federal agency has said why the coins moved or announced any sale.
The order, signed by President Donald Trump, created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and bars sales of Bitcoin that has been finally forfeited and deposited there, with exceptions for court orders and victim restitution. Tokens such as BNB can enter a separate Digital Asset Stockpile.
The government's holdings come from enforcement seizures and still total roughly 324,000 BTC, on-chain analyst EmberCNestimated, valuing them at about $27.7 billion. Similar questions arose on Jul. 13, when government-linked wallets sent more than $288 million in Bitcoin and Ether(ETH) to Coinbase Prime without any confirmed sale. Officials did sell 9,861 Silk Road-linked BTC for about $216 million in March 2023, a disposal later disclosed in a court filing.
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