US Government-Linked Wallet Moves 12,267 Bitcoin Tied to Bitfinex Hack, Hours After $770 Million Sent to Coinbase Prime

A wallet that Arkham Intelligence labels as US government-controlled and associated with the 2016 Bitfinex hack moved 12,267.02 BTC, worth about $1.01 billion, on Oct. 8. Blockchain data cited by Cointelegraph placed the activity on Wednesday. The on-chain tracker Lookonchain flagged the transfer on Thursday.

The movement came hours after roughly $770 million in bitcoin went from government-linked wallets to Coinbase Prime. Galaxy Research and Arkham tracked about 9,261 BTC in those transfers on Oct. 7 and 8.

The owner of the address that received the 12,267 BTC has not been identified. Nobody has confirmed that any coin was sold.

What moved

The transfers came in pieces. One smaller batch of 833.6 BTC, about $71.6 million, landed at Coinbase alongside roughly 40,285 BNB worth about $31.6 million.

Separately, wallets linked to the collapsed FTX exchange sent $94.15 million in USDT to a Coinbase Prime deposit address, according to Arkham's transaction history. The wallet sent two small test transactions first, including a $10 USDT transfer.

Arkham also said an earlier set of transfers on Oct. 7, about $470 million in bitcoin, wrapped bitcoin and USDT, traced to seizures tied to the Bitfinex hack and to Alameda Research, the trading firm once run by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Tallies of the total differ by source, from $1.5 billion to $1.78 billion over three days, because the trackers count different batches.

Coinbase Prime is the exchange's institutional custody and trading arm. It has worked with federal agencies, including the US Marshals Service, which normally handles forfeited property.

Cointelegraph asked the Marshals Service and the Department of Justice for comment. Neither had responded when it published.

The Bitfinex wrinkle

Hackers stole about 120,000 BTC from Bitfinex in 2016. Authorities seized roughly 95,000 BTC in 2022 from wallets controlled by Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan. Lichtenstein later admitted to the hack. Prosecutors have recovered about 94,643 BTC tied to the case.

In January 2025, a federal court approved returning the recovered assets to Bitfinex. That puts these coins in a different category from ordinary forfeitures.

The movement could therefore be a restitution transfer, not a sale. No return has been confirmed.

What the executive order says

President Trump's March 2025 executive order created the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. It says bitcoin deposited into the reserve "shall not be sold." The White House argued at the time that premature government sales had cost taxpayers more than $17 billion in foregone value.

The order has carve-outs. Digital assets can be disposed of when a court or law requires it, or when officials determine they should go back to verified crime victims, support law enforcement, or satisfy other statutory forfeiture obligations. Lawmakers are still trying to write the reserve into law.

That means a transfer out of a federal wallet can be consistent with the order. The order restricts sales from the reserve, not every movement of seized coins.

Earlier denials and the speculation

The reserve has already drawn sale allegations. In January, Bitcoin Magazine reported that roughly $6.3 million in bitcoin paid to the Justice Department in the Samourai Wallet guilty pleas appeared to have been sold. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a prominent Bitcoin advocate in Congress, questioned why the government would liquidate coins after Trump ordered them preserved.

The Marshals Service told DL News it had not sold those coins. It added that crypto liquidations go through a multi-level approval process before forfeited assets can be disposed of.

Arkham's analysts have said the Oct. 7 transfers do not establish a sale. Coinbase Prime deposits have fed liquidation speculation before. In July, the government moved $297 million in bitcoin and ether to Coinbase Prime from high-profile seizures.

How much the government holds

Estimates of federal holdings range from roughly 319,000 to 325,000 BTC, valued around $27 billion to $28 billion, per Arkham and Galaxy. Cointelegraph cites a higher estimate of 328,372 BTC. The government did not buy these coins. They came from criminal cases including Bitfinex, Silk Road, and forfeitures tied to Prince Group.

The US holds more than any other sovereign. A 12,267 BTC transfer is a small slice of that total, but a large one in the market's eyes.

What comes next

The Marshals Service and the Justice Department have not said where the coins went or why. That leaves open whether this is restitution to Bitfinex, internal custody work, or something else.

If the coins go back to Bitfinex under the January 2025 court order, they were never destined for the reserve. If any were sold, it would be the first major test of the "shall not be sold" language Trump signed in March 2025.