These bitcoins were seized in 2020 as part of the Silk Road affair. Some analysts fear a massive sale of these bitcoins, which could cause its price to swing.
The transfer amount is quite colossal. On Tuesday April 2, the US government transferred 30,175 bitcoins (the equivalent of $2 billion) to Coinbase. These bitcoins were seized as part of the Silk Road affair in the United States.
In November 2022, American authorities announced that they had seized 69,000 bitcoins that had been stolen from the online drug sales site Silk Road. These bitcoins were recovered in November 2021 from the home of James Zhong, 32, who had stored the bitcoins on hidden devices… in a metal popcorn box.
Massive sale?
The last time the US government transferred some of these bitcoins was in March 2023, selling 9,861 bitcoins (the equivalent of $216 million at the time). However, this sale caused the price of the queen of cryptocurrencies to sway.
Today, analysts “agree that this movement of funds could give rise to an upcoming massive sale of bitcoins,” specifies Le Journal du Coin. A massive sale of these bitcoins transferred to Coinbase could have an impact on the price of the queen of cryptos, weakened in recent days.
As a reminder, the United States is the largest holder of bitcoins, with more than 215,000 bitcoins (the equivalent of $14 billion) seized since 2020 as part of several legal investigations, including Silk Road but also the hacking of the Bitfinex crypto platform.
Source: https://www.bfmtv.com/crypto/bitcoin/les-etats-unis-transferent-2-milliards-de-dollars-de-bitcoins-vers-coinbase_AV-202404030544.html
