Wallets linked to US government seizures, including those from the Silk Road marketplace, have started moving Bitcoin. Concerns are mounting about whether the stash is about to be sold.
The big Bitcoin move was spotted by blockchain analytics provider Glassnode, who reported it on March 8.
According to Glassnode, the estimated US government wallet balance was 144,500 BTC until the recent move.
In addition, it dropped to 125,600 BTC as there were 18,860 coins worth an estimated $418 million in circulation. The mempool tracker indicates that a whopping 40,000 BTC was moved in the transaction, with about a quarter going to Coinbase.
Glassnode confirmed that an estimated 9,861 BTC worth approximately $219 million has been sent to Coinbase. These have been seized by the Silk Road hacker, according to Glassnode.
Silk Road Bitcoin Stash on the go
In November 2022, the US Department of Justice announced that James Zhong pleaded guilty to telephony fraud nine years after stealing more than 51,000 BTC from the dark web platform Silk Road.
An affidavit at the time supported the government’s seizure of the massive stash worth more than $3.3 billion at the time.
The Silk Road was shut down by a massive law enforcement operation in late 2013, leading to the arrest of creator Ross Ulbricht.
Bitcoin prices have already fallen 1.5% since the move as concerns of a major sell-off begin to mount. “The elites are doing everything they can to dump the price of BTC,” was a response to the data.
Impact of BTC hitting markets
However, it is more likely that the slide is related to the Federal Reserve’s latest action. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on March 7 that the Open Markets committee may need to raise interest rates above original estimates.
Higher interest rates make cash savings more attractive than risky assets like crypto.
Markets have responded by falling 1.3% to $1.06 trillion in total capitalization. Additionally, BTC is down 1.6% on the day and was trading at $22,125 at the time of going to press.
As reported by BeInCrypto, volume and sentiment are declining. This could lead to more short-term losses for the king of crypto.
Bitcoin is currently down more than 9% in the past two weeks. It appears to be heading for support at the $21,000 level.
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BeInCrypto has reached out to the company or individual involved in the story to get an official statement on recent developments, but it has not yet heard back.