Today, July 12, onchain data reveals that 9,825 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $302 million, which were seized by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in connection to the shuttered darknet marketplace Silk Road, have been transferred to new addresses. According to the OKLink dashboard, the BTC was sent in two transactions, with one still pending at the time of writing.
Earlier this year, the U.S. government sold 9,800 BTC for $215.7 million through the Coinbase crypto exchange. It was announced that they plan to sell off the remaining over 40,000 Bitcoin balance in four batches over the course of this year.
Silk Road Bitcoin and James Zhong
The term “Silk Road Bitcoin” refers to the more than 50,000 BTC that the U.S. government seized from James Zhong in 2022. Zhong hacked the dark web marketplace in 2012 to steal funds, and it took almost a decade for the government to finally recover the stolen funds.
No Impact on BTC Price
Despite speculations generated by the movement of BTC by the U.S. government, the price of Bitcoin remains unchanged. As of now, BTC is trading at $30,713, with a 0.18% gain in the last 24 hours. Over the past month, the price of BTC has mostly stayed above $30,000, as bullish sentiments returned to the market after leading traditional financial institutions, such as BlackRock and Fidelity, applied for a spot BTC ETF in June.
Many market observers, including Cameron Winklevoss, the co-founder of Gemini, have stated that significant accumulation of BTC has begun. Data from ByteTree, shared by crypto analyst Miles Deutscher, revealed that the amount of Bitcoin held by funds quickly grew to nearly 850,000 BTC in June.
The movement of seized Bitcoin from the Silk Road case by the U.S. Department of Justice indicates ongoing efforts to address and manage the assets in connection with the darknet marketplace. While the sale of Bitcoin by the U.S. government earlier this year went smoothly, the latest movement has not had any impact on the price of BTC. The indication of significant BTC accumulation by institutional investors further highlights the continued interest and growing confidence in the flagship cryptocurrency. As the cryptocurrency market evolves, the management of seized digital assets will be an ongoing concern for authorities worldwide.
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