Blockchain analytics platform Onchain Lens said that the U.S. government has moved around $565.87 million in seized crypto to Coinbase Prime over a few hours.
Most recently, the government moved 94.15 million Tether (USDT), which Onchain Lens described as coming from seized funds related to bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its trading arm Alameda Research.
This comes after a series of other transactions that added up to about $471.7 million.
The first batch contained 3,974 Bitcoin (BTC), about $329.95 million worth. The blockchain analytics platform described it as related to the infamous Bitfinex hack.
Another transaction contained 657.92 BTC, $54.55 million worth, 750.19 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), $62.34 million worth, and 24.89 million USDT, $24.88 million worth.
According to Onchain Lens, all of these coins also come from seized FTX/Alameda-related assets.
Notably, some of the crypto went through newly minted addresses before eventually landing on Coinbase Prime.
What are these seized assets?
The biggest part of these transfers is Bitcoin related to the Bitfinex hack that happened in 2016.
In August 2016, about 119,754 BTC were stolen from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. U.S. authorities later recovered over 94,000 BTC after getting access to the private keys of hacker Ilya Lichtenstein. The seizure was worth around $3.6 billion in 2022. Later, Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge.
Moving to Coinbase Prime doesn't necessarily mean the assets are about to be sold soon. In 2024, Coinbase Prime was picked by the U.S. Marshals Service to offer custody and advanced trading for its big-cap digital assets portfolio. Sometimes, government transfers to Coinbase Prime may be related to management and custody.
The U.S. government didn't make public the intended purpose of these particular transactions.
Arman Shirinyan
Dan Burgin
