U.S. Government moves $2 billion in seized Bitcoin from Silk Road
In a significant development, a wallet tagged as belonging to the U.S. government transferred 30,175 Bitcoin (BTC) on Tuesday morning. With the current price of Bitcoin hovering around $65,000, the total value of the moved coins is estimated to be roughly $2 billion.
This move comes after the government’s last confirmed sale in March 2023, when it sold 9,861 bitcoins for $216 million. The bitcoins in question were part of the approximately 50,000 coins seized by the government in late 2022, related to the infamous Silk Road website.
According to blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, 2,000 of the moved Bitcoin were transferred to a wallet belonging to the crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN), while the remaining coins were sent to a wallet identified as belonging to the government.
The news of this substantial Bitcoin movement had an immediate impact on the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin, which was already experiencing a downward trend, dipped further below $65,000 following the announcement.
However, it has since slightly recovered and is currently trading at $65,200, marking a 4.7% decrease over the past 24 hours. The events follow Bitcoin recently soaring past $71,000 for the first time in history, shortly after United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority approved cryptocurrency exchange-traded notes for trading.
A setback after a major rise
This recent upwards trend in Bitcoin’s price follows the U.S.’s approval of spot Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) back in January, propelling the cryptocurrency to breach the $70,000 mark last week for the first time. Similarly, Ethereum (ETH) surpassed the $4,000 milestone on Monday. Now companies are looking to do the same with Ethereum.
At the end of March, Nasdaq-traded spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) witnessed an inflow of $15.4 million, marking a positive shift after five consecutive days of outflows, according to preliminary figures from investment company Farside.
The previous week was challenging for these ETFs, with a total outflow of $887.6 million, primarily due to significant withdrawals from GBTC.
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