Blockchain data shows that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is moving another massive batch of seized bitcoins linked to Silk Road, the defunct darknet marketplace launched by Ross Ulbricht in 2011.
The government has already confirmed plans to sell its Silk Road-related bitcoins throughout the year, indicating that the latest transfers could signal an intention to sell larger quantities.
Silk Road Round 2
As Wu Blockchain reported on Twitter on Wednesday, two bitcoin addresses suspected to have been seized by the Department of Justice moved a total of 9.825 bitcoins in the last 24 hours. The first moved 825, while the second moved 9,000 bitcoins.
Previous transfers from these wallets were seen in March when the second wallet sent over 9,800 bitcoins to Coinbase, where they were later sold. Both addresses now hold 0 bitcoins, and the remaining 30.174 bitcoins are on a third address, from which they have yet to be moved.
The 9,825 bitcoins moved on Wednesday are currently worth 300 million dollars, approximately 50 percent of their value compared to September 7, when the department initially announced it had seized 51,351 bitcoins. At that time, the DOJ charged James Zhong with hacking Silk Road back in 2012 and creating nine accounts to hide his identity and initiate the transfer of all bitcoins from the darknet marketplace addresses.
The U.S. government later announced that on March 14, 2023, it sold 9.861 bitcoins for an average price of 21.877 dollars. Many in the crypto community mocked the government after the revelation, given that the price of bitcoin had already risen about 25 percent since the actual sale and that it only paid $215,000 in transaction fees.
