On the 14th of July, the US government transferred about $288.33 million worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum to Coinbase Prime. According to Arkham Intelligence, the deposits were linked to three different criminal forfeiture cases.
Among them were darknet drug trafficker Ryan Farace (“Xanaxman”), the now-defunct exchange BTC-e, and Brian Krewson, a former Oracle employee connected to a $54 million crypto laundering scheme.
As anticipated, the transfers have garnered attention. A government sale would appear to conflict with US President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Will this impact BTC and ETH?
On-chain data showed the government did not move the funds in a single transaction.
The much larger $288.33 million batch of Bitcoin [BTC] was transferred a few hours after an earlier, smaller transfer of about $8.78 million.
Combined, the two deposits moved almost $297 million in a single day, making it one of the biggest government-related cryptocurrency movements of the year.
Yet despite the transfer, the wallets still contain about $20.65 billion, which includes 324,552 BTC, 28,394 ETH, and 145.549 million USDT.
Though this might instill fear of bearish impact on the token, so far, the response has been subdued. In fact, at the time of writing, Bitcoin and Ethereum [ETH] were trading at $62,522.88 and $1,780.83, respectively.
This confirms that large transfers made on Coinbase Prime don’t always affect spot prices like they would in a retail exchange dump because it is an OTC and custody trading venue rather than a public order book.
Sell-off or just routine reshuffling?
Nevertheless, this transfer is merely a standard reorganization and does not allude to a sell-off. This is because Coinbase Prime also manages custody, financing, and staking for institutional clients, so simply putting the Farace and BTC-e coins onto an exchange does not guarantee a sale.
Additionally, earlier transfers this year also did not immediately result in obvious exchange selling, and the most recent movement comes after a string of smaller transfers seen throughout 2026.
In June, for instance, the government transferred seized FTX Chainlink tokens to Coinbase Prime, and in May, it transferred seized Alameda altcoins.
However, neither transaction resulted in a verified sale. In January, there were rumors of a Bitcoin sale connected to Samourai, but it never happened after a similar Coinbase Prime deposit.
Meanwhile, on the 17th of June, the Royal Government of Bhutan transferred 533 Bitcoin, valued at $34.5 million, to Binance.
Final Summary
- The recent whale movement was linked to three different criminal forfeiture cases.
- Despite the transfer, the wallets still contain 324,552 BTC, 28,394 ETH, and 145.549 million USDT.
