The US government recently made a transfer of nearly $1 billion in Bitcoin from 2 wallets containing BTC seized following the hack of cryptocurrency exchange platform Bitfinex in 2016. These transfers took place at a time when the Bitcoin price has gained $10,000 in just a few days and is approaching its all-time high.

U.S. moves $1 billion in Bitcoin

Late on the night of Tuesday, February 28, 2024, the U.S. government transferred almost $1 billion in Bitcoin from 2 wallets containing BTC from the seizure resulting from the Bitfinex hack in 2016.

The transfers took place at around 11pm, when the Bitcoin price was hovering around $60,500, having gained over 10% on the day. Since the start of the week, the king of cryptocurrencies is up over 23% at the time of writing.

Around 3pm yesterday afternoon, the previously unidentified destination addresses of these transfers were labeled as belonging to the US government by Arkham Intelligence.

However, it’s hard to say what the U.S. intends to do with these funds. The Bitcoins have not been moved from their new addresses. When contacted by The Block, the US Department of Justice declined to comment on the transactions.

It should be noted, however, that these took place the day after a hearing in Washington, which saw Ilya Lichtenstein, accused of transferring 119,756 BTC following the Bitfinex hack in 2016, appear alongside compere Heather Morgan.

The 2 individuals had pleaded guilty last July, and had also entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. justice system in order to reduce the risk of imprisonment hanging over them.

Excluding cryptocurrency exchanges, the U.S. government holds the most Bitcoin in the world, behind only the giant Grayscale. Currently, its portfolio, made up entirely of BTC at various addresses, is worth around $14 billion.

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Source : Arkham Intelligence