finbold.com
The US government has moved $1 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) it seized from the anonymous darknet marketplace Silk Road in 2021 and 2022.
A total of 49,000 BTC moved from government wallet addresses, of which roughly 10,000 BTC went to top global exchange Coinbase, blockchain security firm PeckShield announced in a tweet on 8th March that the BTC is part of those seized in 2021 and 2022.
Silk Road money laundering
Silk Road was a black market platform notorious for its money laundering activities. Founded in 2011 by Ross Ulbricht, US regulators shut it down in 2013 on suspicion of illegal activities. Following a series of investigations and house searches, the BTC was confiscated and traced to Ulbricht who’s currently serving a life sentence for the crime.
Silk Road was one of the pioneer websites to accept BTC and since it came to be known as a money laundering platform, Bitcoin and crypto have had a complicated reputation with the government ever since.
The implication of the BTC movements
At times of massive BTC movements like this, one fear is that there may be a massive dump in the price of the asset if the Bitcoin goes to an exchange.
Although there was a slight dip in BTC price from $22,469 to $22,000 following the event, only about 10,000 BTC (~$217 million) went to Coinbase and were probably sold. This shouldn’t be of much concern since not all 49,000 BTC were sold.
Bitcoin price currently sits at $22,059 but could see a bigger hit if the remaining 39,000 BTC move to Coinbase or any other exchange as this could trigger a panic sell.