Approximately two billion dollars in bitcoin previously seized by U.S. institutions linked to the Silk Road market has been moved to a new address.
According to blockchain data, a wallet known to be associated with the U.S. Department of Justice executed a transaction of 0.001 bitcoin to a Coinbase Prime address, likely as a test transaction.
Shortly thereafter, the same wallet transferred 30,174 bitcoins, or approximately two billion dollars at the time of publication, to a new address. Blockchain detectives identified the DOJ wallet as the one containing bitcoin seized from James Zhong, who was convicted in 2022 on charges related to ‘illegally obtained’ cryptocurrencies from Silk Road.
Zhong stole more than 50,000 bitcoins from Silk Road in 2012. In 2021, U.S. authorities executed a raid on his possession and found wallets that held bitcoin. Most of the seized bitcoin was sent to the same address that transferred over 30,000 bitcoins on April 2.
In March 2023, U.S. authorities reported that they had sold approximately 9,861 bitcoins seized from Zhong for over 215 million dollars, leaving about 40,000 bitcoins. The April 2 transaction followed a drop in the price of bitcoin by more than 7 percent, reaching 65,000 dollars.
The Silk Road black market, which has not operated for over 10 years, allowed users to buy and sell illegal goods, including weapons, drugs, and stolen credit card information. U.S. authorities arrested the market’s creator, Ross Ulbricht, in 2013, who is serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
