US government moves $1 billion in seized Bitcoin

• US government-linked wallets moved Bitcoin valued at approximately $1 billion in transactions tracked by blockchain analytics.
• The transfers involved Bitcoin linked to the 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack.
• The movements do not, by themselves, establish that the government sold the assets.

Wallets linked to the US government transferred 12,267 Bitcoin (BTC), worth about $1.01 billion, from a wallet associated with funds seized after the 2016 Bitfinex hack, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham.

The transfer followed earlier government-linked movements totalling $770 million, including transfers to Coinbase Prime.

Arkham Intelligence linked the wallet to Bitcoin seized during the investigation into the Bitfinex exchange hack.

The latest transfer sent nearly all 12,267 BTC to an unlabeled wallet rather than directly to a cryptocurrency exchange.

The transaction does not confirm a sale, and the recipient wallet’s ownership remained unidentified in reports published on 8 October.

US authorities seized more than 94,000 BTC in 2022 from Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, linking the assets to the 2016 hack.

President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order directed qualifying seized Bitcoin into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and barred its sale.

The movement alone does not establish whether the Bitcoin will remain in government-controlled reserves or be transferred elsewhere.