The United States government shifted roughly 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) to a wallet address ending the letters “noe” on Aug. 14, 2024, at 15:38:31 UTC, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.
According to the onchain analytics firm, the funds were seized during the Silk Road raid and are currently valued at $593.91 million.
This marks the latest high-profile transfer of the United States government’s Bitcoin holdings, with the previous transfer of 29,800 BTC, valued at nearly $2 billion, sent from US government wallets to an unknown address on July 29, 2024.
The US government currently holds roughly 203,000 BTC valued at approximately $12 billion at the time of this writing.
United States government largest geopolitical holder of BTC
The $12 billion in Bitcoin holdings indicates the US government is the largest geopolitical holder of the Bitcoin, a theme that has been repeatedly touched on by 2024 Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Trump has previously promised not to sell any of the US government’s Bitcoin holdings if elected and told audiences at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville Tennessee that he would establish a “strategic Bitcoin stockpile” if he manages to secure the Presidency.
Related: Mt. Gox still has 90,000 Bitcoin, valued at roughly $6 billion
On other occasions, the 2024 Presidential candidate has hinted at using Bitcoin to pay off the government’s $35 trillion national debt.
Fears of a market dump
Even the slightest indication that a large Bitcoin whale such as a government is about to dump vast quantities of the decentralized asset is enough to send markets tumbling.
Earlier, in July 2024, crypto markets responded negatively to news of the German government selling its Bitcoin holdings as fear, uncertainty, and doubt gripped investors.
The German government ended up selling 50,000 Bitcoin, valued at roughly $2.9 billion at the time, and currently holds 0.007 BTC, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.
This sell-off has since become somewhat of a joke to analysts and crypto pundits, who point out that the German government lost $124 million in profit by selling its holdings by July 13, 2024 and not waiting for prices to rebound to higher levels
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