A crypto analytics firm says the US government is suddenly transferring massive amounts of Bitcoin that it seized from the defunct, nefarious marketplace Silk Road.
According to PeckShield, the US just sent 9,826 BTC worth $217 million to Coinbase, where it could be sold on the open market.
An additional 39,175 BTC worth $867 million was transferred to two new addresses that appear to be internally controlled and not linked to any exchanges.
#PeckShieldAlert (worth $1 Billion) from wallets related to US Government law enforcement seizures have been transferred to #Coinbase (~9.8k , worth $217M), bc1qf2…fsv (30k ) & bc1qe7…rdg (9k #SilkRoadpic.twitter.com/4MzlvDzkut
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 8, 2023
Silk Road was an online black market created by Ross Ulbrich back in 2011.
The marketplace utilized BTC for payments at a time when many assumed the top crypto asset enabled fully anonymous transfers that can evade law enforcement, which is not the case.
Silk Road was shut down in 2013, and Ulbrich is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after being convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking.
The US seized 51,351 BTC connected to Silk Road in November of 2021 and March of last year.
Bitcoin’s price has continued to pull back this week, along with equities.
BTC is trading at $22,154 at time of publishing, down 0.3% in the last 24 hours.
