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, 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.
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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