50,000 Bitcoin (BTC) worth US$1 billion were moved from multiple wallets linked to US law enforcement seizures and transferred to new addresses, with several transferred to Coinbase on March 8.
According to data shared by chain analytics firm PackShield, three transfers were made from the wallets of US law enforcement agencies. These wallets contain almost 51,000 BTC confiscated by US agencies from the Silk Road market in November 2021. Confiscated BTC was consolidated into two wallet addresses: bc1q5s…0ch and bc1q2ra…cx7.
Of these three transfers, most appear to be internal transfers. However, approximately 9,861 BTC was sent to Coinbase. The other two transfers include a 30,000 BTC transfer to an address starting with bc1q… and a 9,000 BTC transfer to an address starting with bc1qe7…
Silk Road was an online black market and the first modern darknet market. It was launched in 2011 by its American founder Ross Ulbricht under the pseudonym “Roberts the Terrible Pirate”. The market was one of the first to accept Bitcoin payments and even popularized the use of cryptocurrencies in its time. US law enforcement agencies have seized multiple items from its founder, including BTC hoards that have been auctioned off from time to time as far back as 2014.
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A popular proponent of Bitcoin Tim Draper bought almost 30,000 BTC in 2014 from one of these auctions. Another auction for 50,000 BTC was held in October 2015where US Marshall Services sold 21 blocks of 2,000 BTC and one block of 2,341 in an online auction.
Although only a fraction of the 50,000 BTC was sent to Coinbase, the movement of billions worth of BTC from wallets linked to US law enforcement agencies has sparked wild reactions and even crazier theories. User to point if US agencies decided to sell their bitcoin on silk road, it would put significant selling pressure on the market. At the same time, several others questioned the timing of the sale.