U.S. Government-Linked Wallets Move $770 Million in Bitcoin

U.S. government-linked wallets transferred about 9,261 Bitcoin (BTC) worth roughly $770 million to Coinbase Prime on Oct. 7-8, placing a large pool of seized cryptocurrency under renewed market scrutiny.

The transfers occurred in batches and went to addresses identified as Coinbase Prime deposit addresses. Coinbase Prime provides institutional custody and trading services, but the blockchain activity does not establish that the Bitcoin was sold.

The transfers are smaller than the unconfirmed figure of 17,795 BTC, valued at about $1.5 billion, cited in the initial market discussion. No U.S. agency has publicly explained the purpose of the latest movements.

The U.S. government-linked wallets hold about 325,000 BTC, worth roughly $28 billion. Most of the holdings came from law-enforcement seizures and civil forfeitures.

A March 2025 executive order created the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and states that Bitcoin deposited into the reserve should not be sold, subject to exceptions involving victim compensation, court orders, law-enforcement operations and statutory forfeiture requirements.