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美国政府要抛20亿美元“赃款”?比特币应声下跌

usa government wants to forfeit $2 billion in "dirty money"? Bitcoin responds by falling.

wallstreetcn ·  Dec 3 08:44

On December 2, a wallet linked to the US government transferred approximately 1,800 bitcoins (worth $1.9 billion at the time) to a Coinbase Prime deposit address, stemming from the “stolen money” of the 2021 investigation of James Zhong.

Recently, the US government transferred the funds seized from the Silk Road black market case worth about 1.9 billion US dollars to Coinbase Prime, the institutional service platform of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. The move drew market attention.

According to data from blockchain analysis company Arkham Intelligence, on December 2, a wallet linked to the US government transferred about 1,800 bitcoins (worth 1.9 billion dollars at the time) to a Coinbase Prime deposit address. These bitcoins stem from a 2021 investigation into James Zhong, who was convicted of telecom fraud related to the Silk Road market.

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The US Department of Justice announced in 2022 that it had seized more than 50,000 bitcoins from Zhong, some of which were stored in “a single tablet computer buried in a blanket under a popcorn can.” The administration has since transferred many bitcoins to different wallets, but as of press time, it still holds approximately $18 billion in bitcoins.

Silk Road was once a famous dark web marketplace where millions of dollars of cryptocurrency transactions were carried out, and users could buy illegal items such as weapons, drugs, and stolen credit card information. Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the platform, was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 2015. Since the 2024 US election, many people in the cryptocurrency industry have called on Trump to reduce Ulbricht's sentence.

Yesterday, Bitcoin once fell below 95,000 US dollars in the intraday period, falling about 2% during the day, and has now recovered to nearly 96,000 US dollars.

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It's unclear whether the transfer was part of the authorities' strategy to trade or sell these funds. Some US lawmakers, including Senator Cynthia Lummis and President-elect Trump, have proposed legislation to establish a “strategic Bitcoin reserve” in the US.

Notably, the US Federal Bureau of Marshals (the federal agency responsible for seizing cryptocurrencies and other assets linked to criminal acts) said in July this year that it would partner with Coinbase Prime to host tokens linked to asset forfeiture. However, Coinbase is currently still facing a civil lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2023.

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