U.S. Government Sends $1 Billion in Seized Bitfinex Bitcoin to Unlabeled Wallets

A wallet holding bitcoin stolen in the 2016 Bitfinex hack sent 12,267 BTC, worth about $1.01 billion, to new addresses on Thursday, according to Arkham data. Nearly all of the bitcoin landed at one new, unlabeled address, and a second transaction went to a different address. Arkham marks both outputs as already spent, meaning the coins have moved again.

In 2022, the government took roughly 94,000 BTC from Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan over the hack, and Arkham’s label for the sending wallet points to that seizure.

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Arkham recorded no deposit to an exchange. An unlabeled destination does not by itself show whether the coins will be sold or kept. Unchained found no announcement from the Justice Department or the U.S. Marshals Service about the transfer at the time of publication.

The move followed a separate batch on Wednesday, when government-linked wallets sent about $119 million in USDT, plus bitcoin, to Coinbase Prime deposit addresses, Arkham data shows. Arkham tied those funds to the FTX and Alameda seizures as well as the Bitfinex case. Coinbase Prime also offers custody, so a deposit there does not by itself indicate a sale. Seized crypto worth about $288 million also reached Coinbase Prime in July.

A March 2025 executive order says government bitcoin deposited into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve “shall not be sold and shall be maintained as reserve assets of the United States” for governmental objectives. The order lets agency heads dispose of government digital assets in specified cases, including “pursuant to an order from a court of competent jurisdiction” or where the assets can “be returned to identifiable and verifiable victims of crime.” Unchained found nothing stating whether the coins in this wallet have been placed in the reserve.

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