U.S. moves seized assets hours before Hormuz announcement

BEN

MAJOR

2024

D2D

The war in Middle East has taken unexpected twists and turns ever since it began more than a month ago.

On Feb. 28, the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran and assassinated the country's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other top leaders. Iran responded with attacks on Israel and U.S. bases in neighbouring countries, along with the surprising decision to block the Strait of Hormuz.

The maritime passage controls 20% of global seaborne oil trade and the blockage raised oil and gas prices globally, igniting inflation fears.

Both the U.S. and Iran announced a temporary 2-week ceasefire on Apr. 7 but Israel's military attacks on Lebanon proved to be a contentious issue which led to peace talks in Pakistan failing. Iran continued to block the Strait, with U.S. forces attempting to get it opened.

Then, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon on Apr. 16.

The next day, he announced that the Strait of Hormuz is completely open but claimed the deal isn't tied to Lebanon in any way.

Iran's foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi shared that the passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire in line with the ceasefire in Lebanon.

U.S. government moves seized Bitcoin

Hours before the Hormuz announcement, the U.S. government moved 8.19 Bitcoin (BTC) worth approximately $606,000 to a Coinbase Prime deposit address on Apr. 16.

U.S. Government transfers, Source: Arkham

The Bitcoin moved is part of the assets the U.S. government seized from the hacker Ilya Lichtenstein who stole 119,756 BTC from the Bitfinex crypto exchange in August 2016.

In February 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure of 94,636 Bitcoin linked to the Bitfinex hack and the arrest of Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, in New York for the conspiracy to launder stolen cryptocurrency.

Lichtenstein received a five-year prison sentence in November 2024 and Morgan received an 18-month sentence. However, Lichtenstein got released from prison early under the 2018 First Step Act in January this year.

The latest movement of Bitcoin by the U.S. government shouldn't be linked to any sale. Instead, such a transfer could very well be routine wallet management.

In fact, the government is required to return the seized Bitcoin to the Bitfinex exchange, which is supposed to help the users affected by the hack in recovering funds.

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U.S. moves seized assets hours before Hormuz announcement

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U.S. government moves seized Bitcoin