Onchain data from Arkham shows that the US government has sent another batch of bitcoin to Coinbase’s institutional trading platform, sparking fears that another bitcoin selloff could soon be underway.
The wallet tagged as the US government sent 3,940 BTC, worth around $241 million, to Coinbase Prime at 1pm ET on Wednesday. The government’s wallet address still holds a balance of $13.3 billion worth of crypto — the majority of which sits in bitcoin, making them one of the largest bitcoin holders.
Arkham claims the funds were part of a January 2024 seizure by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) from narcotics trafficker Banmeet Singh. The 40-year-old Indian national was sentenced to five years in prison for selling controlled substances through dark web marketplaces such as Silk Road and Alpha Bay in exchange for cryptocurrency.
At the time of the plea deal, Singh forfeited $150 million worth of crypto — that figure has since appreciated by nearly $100 million based on the value of the funds at the time they were sent to Coinbase.
The price of bitcoin was tracking lower following the news, trading at around $60,600 at the time of writing, down 1.5% over the last 24 hours. The US government’s deposits to Coinbase follows a similar move by the German government earlier this week, which sent $195 million worth of seized bitcoin to Coinbase on June 19.
Bitcoin sales from government entities have added to the mounting sell pressure on the leading digital asset this week, but some onchain analysts argue that miners have more to do with the bitcoin downtrend than governments or whales.
“Less revenue means less efficient miners are forced to sell to keep up with costs until they eventually capitulate,” wrote pseudonymous X user @niftyinvest.
“The efficient miners will survive and accumulate the bulk of the rewards in due time. The hash rate is currently breaking down confirming this, so look for signs of an increase hash rate in the coming day/weeks/months.”
