Cointime

Cointime

Download App
iOS & Android

US Government Moves Nearly $2 Billion in Silk Road Bitcoin to Coinbase

Cointime Official

From decrypt by Mat Di Salvo

The feds on Monday moved nearly $2 billion of seized Bitcoin from shuttered dark web marketplace Silk Road to Coinbase, blockchain data shows. 

Arkham Intelligence flagged the transactions by the United States government. It said that the Bitcoin was from the Silk Road marketplace, and was ultimately moved to America’s biggest digital asset exchange after a brief stop at another Bitcoin wallet. Ultimately, 19,800 BTC—or $1.92 billion worth—was transferred.

Feds shut down the Silk Road online black market back in 2014. The platform was widely used to buy illegal drugs and services—often with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. 

Some Bitcoin held by American authorities was seized from James Zhong, who last year pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud.

Zhong manipulated the Silk Road transaction system in 2012 to steal 50,676 Bitcoins. Feds confiscated the stash in 2022, after BTC had rocketed upwards in price. It was one of the biggest Bitcoin seizures in history.

According to Arkham, the huge stash of 19,800 Bitcoin moved Monday went to two different Coinbase wallets at a cost of just $3.34. 

Bitcoin’s price is now down by more than 2% over a 24-hour period, according to CoinGecko. Its price currently stands at $95,250. 

When the government moves large amounts of Bitcoin, it can frighten investors, who speculate that the coins may be up for sale. But Coinbase Prime now has a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service (part of the Department of Justice) to manage and dispose of its digital assets, which means that a sale may not be imminent just because Coinbase is involved.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s questions, but the government has in the past sold off seized Bitcoin.

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to free Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht upon taking office, after Ublricht has spent more than 11 years behind bars.

"Immense gratitude to everyone who voted for President Trump on my behalf," an official Ulbricht account on X (formerly known as Twitter), run by his wife, posted last month. "I trust him to honor his pledge and give me a second chance."

Comments

All Comments

Recommended for you

  • Matrixport: Solana’s funding rate is currently as high as 70% annualized, and a price correction may occur

    According to a report, Matrixport has released a chart today stating that Grayscale has submitted an application to convert Solana Trust into a spot ETF. Although the current asset management scale of the product is relatively small at $134 million, if approved, it will set an important market precedent for other ETF issuers. It is important to note that Solana's financing rate is currently as high as 70% annualized, which creates significant pressure on leveraged long positions. Historical experience shows that similar high financing rates are often related to price corrections, as was the case in March of this year when the SOL-USDT price fell under similar financing rate backgrounds.

  • Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is cautious about separate taxation of cryptocurrencies and approval of ETFs

     Japanese Prime Minister Shizuo Shima expressed caution about the unified 20% separate taxation rule for cryptocurrency in a representative issue at a plenary session of the House of Representatives. "Is it appropriate to encourage investment in cryptocurrency such as stocks and investment trusts that have investor protection regulations? Will the public understand the idea of applying separate self-assessment taxation? There are several issues that need to be resolved. We need to consider it carefully." At the same time, "whether cryptocurrency should be included in ETFs depends on whether cryptocurrency is an asset that needs to be made more easily accessible to the public."

  • AI computing economy layer GAIB completes $5 million seed round of financing, led by Hack VC, Faction VC and Hashed

    GAIB, an AI computing economic layer, announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing, with Hack VC, Faction VC, and Hashed leading the investment. Other participating investors include Spartan, Animoca Brands, MH Ventures, Aethir, Near Foundation, Chris Yin from Plume Network, and Lucas Kozinski from Renzo Protocol.

  • Cadenza, an investment institution focusing on blockchain and AI, has raised $50 million for its early-stage AI venture capital fund

     Cadenza, a risk investment company focusing on blockchain and artificial intelligence, announced that its early AI venture capital fund has raised $50 million. The new fund will focus on seed and pre-seed investments, with a focus on infrastructure and enterprise applications. Cadenza's investment portfolio in the Web3 field currently includes: Web3 infrastructure Validation Cloud, Malaysian digital asset exchange Hata, Web3 API platform Uniblock, L1 blockchain Linera, and encrypted wallet application Zulu.

  • Union Completes $12 Million Series A Funding, Led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and Others

    cross-chain settlement layer Union has announced the completion of a $12 million Series A financing round, led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and Longhash Ventures, with participation from Borderless Capital and Blockchange, as well as blockchain founders from Polygon, Movement, and Berachain. The funding will be used for core team expansion, partner integration, and ecosystem development.

  • Russia sentences Hydra market founder to life in prison

     Stanislav Moiseev, founder of the online black market and cryptocurrency mixing service Hydra, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Russian court.

  • Portal Ventures raises oversubscribed $75 million crypto fund

    , Portal Ventures, a cryptocurrency venture capital fund before the seed round, raised a $75 million cryptocurrency fund with oversubscription, supported by Chris Dixon and Marc Andreessen.

  • CointimeSG ·

    Wall Street Bitcoin Miner BTC Digital Deploys 2,000 BITMAIN T21 Miners

    The T21 miners feature 190T performance and 3610W energy usage per unit. The firm also plans to expand operations in Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Missouri.

    Wall Street Bitcoin Miner BTC Digital Deploys 2,000 BITMAIN T21 Miners
  • Messari ·

    State of Nym Q3 2024

    Nym (NYM) is an open-source, incentivized, and decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) protocol that protects privacy at the network level of any application, wallet, or digital service. As a mixnet, Nym protects against traffic pattern analysis and metadata surveillance. Nym exists as a tool to facilitate private end-to-end internet communication between any application, in addition, Nym built a proprietary application on top of the Mixnet, NymVPN. As such, it is not exclusive to blockchain-related activities. However, the Nym mixnet is closely linked to the NYM token, which runs on the Nyx Cosmos-based appchain to enable permissionless ‘bonding’ of new mix nodes to the Nym network and to pay for mixnet services.

    State of Nym Q3 2024
  • CointimeSG ·

    Aptos Financial Ecosystem Analysis

    Aptos (APT) is a Layer-1 blockchain designed around the core tenets of scalability, safety, reliability, and upgradeability. Aptos was born out of Meta’s Diem and Novi projects, eventually launching in October 2022. Core developer Aptos Labs raised about $400 million in two 2022 private investor rounds.

    Aptos Financial Ecosystem Analysis

Daily Must-Read

Popular Activities

Delysium $AGI & AI Private Yacht Party

Delysium $AGI & AI Private Yacht Party

March 27 - March 27
Seoul

Popular Tags

Cointime
News
Contents
RSS
Company