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On December 3, the U.S. government moved $33.6 million worth of cryptocurrency seized during the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research to two unidentified addresses.
The transfers involving tokens such as Ethereum (ETH), Binance USD (BUSD), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), and Shiba Inu (SHIB) stirred curiosity across the digital asset sector.
Details of the Transfers
According to data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, the transactions included two significant transfers of 5,024 ETH and 3,739 ETH, valued at $18 million combined. The funds were sent to unknown addresses beginning with “0x9cd” and “0x9ac.”
The wallet labeled by Arkham as “FTX Alameda Seized Funds” also moved $13 million in BUSD and $1.5 million in SHIB.
Other cryptocurrencies were also involved in the transactions, including $36,070 worth of Axie Infinity (AXS), $106,430 in Compound (COMP), Numeraire (NMR) valued at $93,950, WBTC worth $50,710, and $47,350 in Yearn Finance’s YFI.
The transfers coincided with a broader market rally, with nearly all of the tokens included in the transactions experiencing significant upticks over the last seven days. ETH is currently trading at $3,726, almost 28% lower than its all-time high but 9% up on its level from a week ago, and an increase of more than 50% compared to its value a month ago.
On-chain Ethereum volume also hit a year-to-date high of $183.74 billion in November, with analysts attributing the surge to market participants reallocating capital from centralized exchanges to decentralized on-chain activities.
More Government Crypto Activity
This latest transfer follows another major movement of digital assets by the U.S. government. On Monday, a wallet labeled “U.S. Government: Silk Road DOJ Confiscated Funds” moved nearly $2 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to Coinbase Prime.
The platform has emerged as the government’s go-to service for cryptocurrency liquidations, especially with the stash seized from the darknet marketplace founded by Ross Ulbricht in 2011, continuing to play an important role in the narrative of Bitcoin’s price movements.
Arkham Intelligence reported that the transaction involved 19,800 BTC being split between two wallets: one received 10,000 BTC worth $969 million, while the other was credited with 9,800 BTC valued at $949 million.
These actions mirror similar movements reported in July, when the blockchain analytics company highlighted that another $2 billion worth of Bitcoin, also seized from Silk Road, was divided across separate wallets. At that time, nearly 28,000 BTC were split, with 19,800 coins valued at $1.3 billion sent to one wallet and 10,000 worth $670 million sent to another.
The U.S. government maintains substantial Bitcoin holdings obtained through seizures and asset forfeitures. As of December 4, its digital asset holdings totaled $19.6 billion, and data shows that these include significant amounts of Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, WBTC, and BNB.