US Government Moves $12.36M in Ether, USDC and USDT From Bitfinex Seizure Wallet

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US Government Moves $12.36M in Ether, USDC and USDT From Bitfinex Seizure Wallet
PrimeXBT Editorial Team
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The U.S. government moved $12.36 million in ether, USDC and USDT out of a Bitfinex hack seizure wallet on Tuesday, July 14, according to Arkham Intelligence data. Most of it landed at Coinbase Prime; the USDC leg went to an address Arkham has not yet identified. The transfer came a day after the government shifted roughly 3,941 BTC to the same platform.

The U.S. government moved $12.36 million in ether, USDC and USDT out of a wallet tied to the 2016 Bitfinex hack on Tuesday, sending the funds through six separate transactions. The sender in every case carried the label "U.S. Government: Bitf," Arkham's shorthand for a Department of Justice-controlled wallet. The activity followed Monday's movement of roughly 3,941 BTC to Coinbase Prime, giving the government two straight days of onchain activity from seizure wallets.

Where the funds went

The largest leg sent 5,939 ETH, worth $11.15 million, to Coinbase Prime, followed by a second ether transaction to the same destination. USDT moved the same way, with $296,710 routed to Coinbase Prime alongside a $10 test transaction.

The USDC leg broke from that pattern. Rather than routing to Coinbase, $901,005 went to an address beginning with 0x7D7C1C4c, one Arkham has not yet attached to a named entity. That could point to another government custody account, a different exchange not yet tagged, or an intermediary wallet.

A test before every move

Each asset moved twice to its destination — first a token amount of $10 or $11, then the full sum. That pattern held across all three assets and both destinations, which points to a deliberate operating procedure rather than isolated transfers. Sending a small amount first lets the wallet controller confirm the receiving address before committing the full balance, a standard practice because crypto transactions cannot be reversed once confirmed.

A sliver of a much larger stack

The scale stays small against what the government holds. The U.S. Government entity Arkham tracks holds roughly $21.22 billion in crypto across 618 addresses, with bitcoin making up about $20.91 billion, or roughly 98.5% of the portfolio.

Tuesday's $12.36 million transfer represents about 0.06% of total holdings, a share the report frames as a routine or case-specific transfer rather than the start of a broader liquidation.

Source: Bitcoin News

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