Today, the US government sent a transaction that appears to indicate that it may be about to liquidate the remaining Bitcoin it seized from the Silk Road online marketplace.
According to on-chain data, the US government transferred a test transaction worth 0.001 BTC, part of a larger stock of about 30,174 BTC worth $2 billion linked to the notorious Silk Road market.
Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, received the transaction from these funds linked to Silk Road. Arkham Intelligence first identified the origins of the source of BTC, and the destination of the coins, to Coinbase. The purpose of this transaction appears to be to sell currencies, as has happened previously in the past.
Last March, the US government sold 10,000 bitcoins linked to Silk Road, selling just over 9,861 bitcoins worth $216 million, according to a court filing.
As in this case, this event was followed up by 3 cross-chain transactions, which were sent a few weeks before the sale was disclosed in the court filing.
The US Marshals Service is one of the largest sellers of Bitcoin to date. According to data from researcher Jameson Loeb, US Marshals helped the US government sell 195,000 Bitcoin.
Despite attempts by US lawmakers to have the agency hold these funds as a strategic asset, it has continued to sell the funds in line with its mandate, as the role of the US Marshals Service is to sell assets seized in criminal investigations.
