US government moves nearly 10K Bitcoin worth over $300M related to Silk Road seizure

10 months ago

The authorities antecedently promised to liquidate astir 40,000 remaining BTC from the seizure successful “four much batches” implicit the remainder of the calendar year.

US authorities  moves astir   10K Bitcoin worthy  implicit    $300M related to Silk Road seizure

A cryptocurrency wallet associated with the United States Department of Justice moved astir 9,825.25 BTC worthy astir $299 cardinal successful a bid of transactions connected July 12. 

It’s unclear astatine this clip whether the transactions, which look to person yet propagated to astatine slightest 101 caller wallets, were sent to speech addresses for merchantability oregon stay successful the custody of the Justice Department.

Screenshot via Blockchain.com

Initially, astir 9,825 of the BTC associated with the Silk Road seizure moved successful a brace of transactions sent to 3 addresses astatine astir 6:00 AM PST (1:00 PM UTC). The bulk of the coins — 8,200 BTC worthy astir $250 cardinal arsenic of the clip of this article’s work — were sent to a azygous address, which subsequently split the full magnitude crossed 101 abstracted addresses a small implicit an hr later:

Screenshot via Blockchain.com

The U.S. authorities antecedently revealed that it had plans to offload the remainder of its BTC from the Silk Road seizure implicit the people of 4 batch transactions passim the remainder of the calendar year.

Related: US authorities plans to merchantability 41K Bitcoin connected to Silk Road

According to existent on-chain data, it’s imaginable the U.S. authorities could beryllium testing liquidity strategies. One relationship associated with batch transactions conducted connected March 7, 2023, appears to person profited successful the magnitude of $237,934,919 connected 30,174.7 successful BTC holdings not presently associated with the July 12 batch of transactions.

However, different relationship that received 9,825.6 BTC from the DOJ during the March 7 batch distributed those coins among 101 accounts. The aforesaid relationship aboriginal joined 599 different accounts to send a full of astir 0.1 BTC (about $3,032 arsenic of the clip of this article’s publication) to yet different account, which past dispersed its holdings of astir 52 BTC crossed 37 addresses.

Screenshot via Blockchain.com

While speculation abounds astir the nonstop quality of the transactions, which present span immoderate 800-plus wallet addresses, the sheer fig of transactions and associated wallets makes tracking precisely what the U.S. authorities is doing with each coin an progressively challenging endeavor.

This deficiency of certainty has led immoderate members of the crypto assemblage to fearfulness that BTC is being “nuked,” oregon that the U.S. government’s wake-inducing coin question volition ripple passim the cryptocurrency system and origin investors to wantonness what immoderate spot arsenic the aboriginal stages of a bull run.

Bullish CPI and #bitcoin nuked

Not a bully sign

— Algod (@AlgodTrading) July 12, 2023

Other enthusiasts person dismissed specified commentary arsenic unnecessary fear, uncertainty, and uncertainty based connected the deficiency of tidal question — much than six hours aft the transactions were clocked, BTC has seen little than 1% of marketplace movement.

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