The U.S. government moved more than $1 billion in Bitcoin tied to one of crypto’s best-known hack cases.
A wallet labeled by blockchain analytics firm Arkham as holding seized funds from the Bitfinex hacker sent 12,267 BTC in a single transfer at 9:33 a.m. ET on Thursday. At the time, the transaction was worth about $1.01 billion.
Nearly all of the Bitcoin was sent to a new unlabeled address. Another 0.0012 BTC went to a second wallet.
The coins were not sent directly to an exchange, and wallet-to-wallet transfers do not on their own show that a sale took place. Arkham’s data does show both outputs as already spent, which means the Bitcoin moved again after the initial transaction.
Part of the 2022 seizure tied to the Bitfinex case
The Bitcoin comes from roughly 94,000 BTC seized by the U.S. government in 2022 from Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan. Lichtenstein orchestrated the 2016 Bitfinex hack, according to the report.
Decrypt reported in April that the government had also moved a smaller batch from the same seizure, about 8.2 BTC, to Coinbase Prime.
Latest in a series of government-linked transfers
Thursday’s move came after other recent transfers involving government-linked wallets.
According to Arkham, wallets tied to the U.S. government sent about $119 million in USDT to Coinbase Prime on Wednesday. The same day, roughly 2,574 BTC, worth about $215 million, was also moved through intermediary addresses to Coinbase Prime.
In July, the government shifted $288 million in seized crypto to Coinbase Prime.
Those transfers do not confirm a sale. Coinbase Prime offers custody services in addition to trading infrastructure, so deposits there can serve more than one purpose.
Strategic reserve questions remain in focus
The new transfer puts attention back on what Washington plans to do with its Bitcoin holdings.
President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order directed forfeited Bitcoin into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve that would not be sold.
In August that year, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent backed away from comments suggesting the government would not buy more Bitcoin, saying officials would explore budget-neutral ways to add to the reserve.
Before that order, a federal court in January 2025 cleared the way for the sale of $6.5 billion in Bitcoin seized from Silk Road.
U.S. government still holds about 306,795 BTC
Arkham data shows the U.S. government still holds about 306,795 BTC. With Bitcoin trading near $81,000, those holdings are worth roughly $24.85 billion.