On July 14, the US government transferred approximately $288.33 million worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum to Coinbase Prime. According to Arkham Intelligence, the deposits were linked to three separate criminal forfeiture cases.
Among them were defunct BTC-e exchange darknet drug trafficker Ryan Farace (“Xanaxman”) and Brian Krewson, a former Oracle employee linked to a $54 million cryptocurrency laundering scheme.
As expected, the transfers attracted attention. A government sale appears to contradict US President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Will this affect BTC and ETH?
On-chain data showed that the government did not move the funds in a single transaction.
The much bigger $288.33 million party Bitcoin (BTC) He was transferred a few hours after a smaller transfer of approximately $8.78 million.
Combined, the two deposits moved almost $297 million in a single day, making it one of the largest government-related cryptocurrency movements of the year.
However, despite the transfer, there are still approximately $20.65 billion in wallets, including 324,552 BTC, 28,394 ETH and 145.549 million USDT.
While this raises fears of a bearish impact on the token, the reaction has been subdued so far. In fact, at the time of writing this article, Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) They were trading at $62,522.88 and $1,780.83, respectively.
This confirms that large transfers made on Coinbase Prime do not always impact spot prices as they do on a retail exchange breakdown because it is an OTC and custodial trading venue rather than a public order book.
Selling or just routine remixing?
However, this transfer is just a standard restructuring and does not constitute a sale. This is because Coinbase Prime also handles custody, funding, and staking for institutional customers, so placing Farace and BTC-e coins on an exchange does not guarantee a sale.
Additionally, this year’s early transfers did not immediately result in a significant swap sale either, and the latest move follows a series of smaller transfers seen throughout 2026.
For example, in June the government transferred FTX seized Chainlink tokens to Coinbase Prime and transferred Alameda altcoins seized in May.
However, neither transaction resulted in a confirmed sale. There were rumors of a Bitcoin sale linked to Samourai in January, but that never materialized after a similar Coinbase Prime deposit.
Meanwhile, on 17 June the Royal Government Bhutan transferred 533 BitcoinsIt values Binance at $34.5 million.
Final Summary
- The recent whale movement was linked to three separate criminal confiscation cases.
- Despite the transfer, there are still 324,552 BTC, 28,394 ETH and 145.549 million USDT in the wallets.
