Founded in February of 2011 by Ross William Ulbricht, alias Dread Pirate Roberts, the Silk Road marketplace brought in millions of revenue in Bitcoin at its peak. The darknet marketplace was, however, seized by United States law enforcement, with Ulbricht sentenced to two life imprisonment. As a result, the United States government seized over 51k Bitcoins belonging to the Silk Road in late 2021 and early 2022 and consolidated them in one address.
With no intentions of holding the assets, United States law enforcement could be preparing to auction the seized Bitcoins soon. As a result, the cryptocurrency market could record increased sell pressure and rejuvenate the bears in the coming weeks.
Closer Look at Bitcoin Transactions by US Government
According to on-chain analytics firm PeckShield Alert, Bitcoins worth approximately $1 billion have been transferred from the US government’s related wallets to the Coinbase Global cryptocurrency exchange. Notably, United States law enforcement sent the seized Bitcoins in several transactions.
Among the transaction batches, US law enforcement sent eight transactions with 1,000 Bitcoins to Coinbase Global. The United States law enforcement then sent a single transaction with about 40k Bitcoins.
The observations by PeckShield have, however, been objected to by Glassnode, which indicated that most transfers were internal transfers. According to Glassnode, the United States government only sent 9,861 Bitcoins seized from the Silk Road to Coinbase Global.
As a result, the United States government holds approximately 125k Bitcoins, thus a significant shareholder in the top digital asset industry.
Similar sentiments were shared by Lookonchain that indicated that only Bitcoins worth approximately $217 million were transferred to Coinbase Global.
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