Categories: U.S. Regulation

US Government Moves $600 Million in Silk Road Bitcoin to Coinbase

The United States government moved nearly $600 million in seized Bitcoin from the Silk Road dark web marketplace to a Coinbase wallet Wednesday, according to Arkham Intelligence.

The government moved 10,000 Bitcoin, worth nearly $594 million at the time of transaction, to a wallet tied to Coinbase Prime. It’s not immediately clear whether the United States plans to sell or custody the assets. The transaction follows a previous move of approximately $2 billion worth of Silk Road Bitcoin in late July.

Such large shifts of cryptocy tend to pique investors’ interest—and sometimes even scare them—as they speculate on what may happen next to the asset. 

But last month, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) awarded Coinbase Prime a contract to manage and dispose of its large-cap cryptocy assets. The U.S. government may therefore just be moving the seized assets to a new place of custody. 

Silk Road was an Internet marketplace that allowed users to—via the anonymous Tor network—buy goods like illegal drugs. Its customers used cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to buy products but authorities shut the website down in 2014 and seized the digital assets the platform had received. U.S. authorities have sold chunks of the seized Bitcoin over the years.
Terron Gold

Recent Posts

Cypherpunk Launches World’s Largest Zcash Mining Fleet in $33 Million Winklevoss Deal

Cypherpunk Technologies is expanding its massive bet on Zcash by launching what it calls the…

5 days ago

MapleStory Universe Launches AI Game Jam With $15,000 in NXPC Prizes

MapleStory Universe is putting artificial intelligence in the hands of game creators with the launch…

6 days ago

Kalshi Pushes Beyond Prediction Markets With Copper Perpetual Future Filing With CFTC

Kalshi is making another major move beyond prediction markets, filing with the Commodity Futures Trading…

6 days ago

Coinbase Brings 50x Crypto Perpetual Trading to Base App Through Hyperliquid

Coinbase is bringing high-leverage decentralized derivatives directly into its Base App through an integration with…

6 days ago

Hong Kong Puts First Regulated Stablecoin to Work in Insurance and $49 Billion UAE Trade Market

Hong Kong's first regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin is moving beyond testing and into real-world…

6 days ago

Fake Trezor, Ledger and Exodus Apps Target Crypto Users in Massive Seed Phrase Scam

Cybersecurity researchers at Rapid7 have uncovered a sophisticated crypto fraud operation that used nearly 885,000…

7 days ago