US Government Transfers $33 Million in ETH, BUSD and SHIB, Seized to FTX

On December 3, the US government moved $33.6 million of cryptocurrency seized during the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research to two unidentified addresses.

Transfers involving tokens such as Ethereum (ETH), Binance USD (BUSD), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) sparked curiosity in the digital asset sector.

Details of 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 a combined $18 million. Funds were sent to unknown addresses starting with “0x9cd” and “0x9ac”.

The portfolio labeled by Arkham as “FTX Alameda Seized Funds” also moved $13 million in BUSD and $1.5 million in SHIB.

Other cryptocurrencies also took part in the transactions, including $36,070 in Axie Infinity (AXS), $106,430 in Compound (COMP), $93,950 worth of Numeraire (NMR), $50,710 worth of WBTC, and $47,350 in Yearn Finance’s YFI .

The transfers coincided with a rise in the broader market, with almost all tokens included in the transactions seeing significant increases over the past seven days. ETH is currently trading at $3,726, down nearly 28% from its all-time high, but up 9% from a week ago, and up more than 50% from its value a month ago.

On-chain Ethereum volume also hit an annual high of $183.74 billion in November, with analysts attributing the increase to market participants reallocating capital from centralized exchanges to decentralized on-chain activities.

More government crypto activity

This latest transfer follows another major move of digital assets by the US government. On Monday, a wallet labeled “US Government: Funds seized from Silk Road DOJ” moved nearly $2 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to Coinbase Prime.

The platform has become the government’s go-to service for cryptocurrency settlements, especially with the seized storage of the darknet market founded by Ross Ulbricht in 2011 continuing to play an important role in the narrative of price movements of Bitcoin.

Arkham Intelligence reported that the transaction involved 19,800 BTC 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 moves reported in July, when the blockchain analytics firm highlighted that another $2 billion worth of Bitcoin, also seized from Silk Road, was split into separate wallets. At the 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 US government holds substantial Bitcoin holdings obtained through seizures and asset forfeitures. As of December 4, their holdings in digital assets totaled $19.6 billion, with data showing that they include significant amounts of Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, WBTC, and BNB.

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