Wallet containing $2 billion of DOJ-seized bitcoin appears to send test transaction to Coinbase Prime: Arkham data
Quick Take
- A crypto wallet labelled as belonging to the U.S. Department of Justice, and holding around $2 billion worth of confiscated bitcoin, appears to have attempted to send a transaction to Coinbase Prime.
- The wallet has instigated a movement of 0.001 BTC, likely as a test transaction.
UPDATE (Apr. 2, 17:40 UTC): Since publishing, at 16:59 UTC, an additional 1,999.999 
BTC
-6.22%
, worth $131.27 million, was moved into the Coinbase Prime hot wallet.
The wallet, which holds over 30,174 bitcoin, initiated a transaction of 0.001 BTC ($65) with a wallet labeled on Arkham as belonging to Coinbase Prime. The transaction currently has one block confirmation. Typically exchanges require multiple confirmations before a transaction is confirmed.
The rest of the funds were sent to a change address — which means they may have effectively stayed in the same place. But if it is a test transaction, further movements could be on the way.
The $2 billion in bitcoin appears to be tied to funds the DOJ confiscated from the now-defunct Silk Road dark web market. At the end of last year, a U.S. appeals court finalized a mandate that formalized the forfeiture of 69,370 of bitcoin and other crypto connected to Silk Road.
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In 2020, the DOJ seized and began seeking the official forfeiture of the crypto, at the time valued at over $1 billion.
Coinbase declined to comment.
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