U.S. government wallets moved $103.2 million in seized cryptocurrency on Tuesday, routing 833.6 Bitcoin worth $71.6 million through two intermediary addresses before they reached deposit addresses that blockchain analytics firm Arkham tags as Coinbase Prime, the institutional arm of Coinbase.

The BNB leg of the transfer amounted to 40,285 BNB, valued at $31.63 million, which hopped through two unlabeled wallets before settling elsewhere. Arkham labels the originating addresses as U.S. government property and traces the Bitcoin tranche to two separate forfeitures and the BNB tranche to a third.

Where did the Bitcoin come from?

Arkham attributes about 568.7 BTC of the 833.6 BTC to assets forfeited from Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, the Estonian operators of HashFlare. Prosecutors said the cloud-mining service collected more than $577 million from investors between 2015 and 2019 despite lacking the hashrate to honor its contracts.

A federal court sentenced both men in August 2025 to the 16 months they had already served, and the Justice Department said forfeited assets would be available to repay victims.

The remaining 264.9 BTC traces to the 2016 Bitfinex hack, when Ilya Lichtenstein stole 119,754 BTC from the exchange. In January 2025, the Justice Department argued that 94,643 BTC should be returned to Bitfinex. The government continued to drain that wallet throughout Tuesday's transfer window.

Where did the BNB come from?

The 40,285 BNB originates from funds the government seized from Alameda Research, the trading firm tied to the collapsed FTX exchange. The tokens first moved to one unlabeled address and then to another, with no immediate indication that any portion landed at Coinbase Prime.

Why is the reason for the move unconfirmed?

Coinbase Prime serves a dual function. It executes trades for institutional clients, and it also acts as a custodian of seized assets for the U.S. government. A July transfer of approximately $288 million in Bitcoin used the same routing pattern; the government has never confirmed a sale in that case.

Coinbase Prime is the federal government's preferred venue for disposing of seized crypto, market participants say, and a deposit there often precedes liquidation. A transfer, however, is not a sale.

What stops the government from selling?

A March 2025 executive order created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve holding forfeited Bitcoin that "shall not be sold." Coins tied to open criminal proceedings sit outside the reserve until forfeiture becomes final, leaving room for interim dispositions.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that "forfeited Bitcoin is the foundation of the reserve." Bitcoin only counts toward the reserve after final forfeiture. BNB and other tokens fall under a separate Digital Asset Stockpile, from which Treasury can release assets only for victim compensation, law-enforcement operations, or legal obligations.

How big is Washington's stash?

Tuesday's transfer is a fraction of the federal inventory. Arkham's September research placed U.S. government holdings at roughly 325,000 BTC — about 1.6% of Bitcoin's total supply and roughly $27 billion at current prices.

That makes Washington the largest sovereign holder in Arkham's ranking, ahead of the United Kingdom at 61,245 BTC and El Salvador at 7,200 BTC. The U.K. stockpile stems largely from a fraud scheme that harmed more than 120,000 Chinese pensioners; El Salvador accumulated its coins through direct purchases and state-sponsored mining.

What did the last big move do to price?

When the government sent 19,800 BTC from the Silk Road forfeiture, worth about $1.92 billion at the time, to Coinbase in December 2024, Bitcoin dropped more than 2% within 24 hours. Traders watch the wallets because a single forced seller can compress price for every holder. Any BNB liquidation would strike a thinner order book than Bitcoin's.

Analysts will look to the next on-chain signal from Coinbase Prime — whether funds leave the platform or remain in custody — to determine whether Tuesday's transfer was housekeeping, a precursor to a BNB sale, or a step toward reimbursing victims of the underlying criminal cases.