The US government quietly moved about 2,000 bitcoin to Coinbase — roughly $131 million worth. They even sent a $65 test transaction first, just to make sure everything connected properly. Very cautious. Very bureaucratic. The kind of move that sounds boring until you realize the government still holds about 94,600 bitcoin from hacker confiscations alone, worth over $6 billion. That’s not a small number.
The government sent a $65 test transaction before moving $131 million in Bitcoin. Very cautious. Very bureaucratic.
But here’s where things get interesting. Around the same time, Coinbase’s premium turned deeply negative — hitting negative $167.8, the worst reading in a full year. Bitcoin was literally trading cheaper on Coinbase than on Binance for 21 straight days. That kind of spread doesn’t happen for no reason.
Coinbase is where American institutions trade. Binance is where global retail traders live. When the premium goes negative, it usually means US institutions are selling while retail traders abroad are trying to buy the dip. Classic setup. And it played out almost perfectly here.
ETFs weren’t helping. Spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced $272 million in net outflows on February 3 alone. That’s not someone making a bold decision. That’s mechanical selling — ETF investors redeem shares, authorized participants sell Bitcoin into the market, no questions asked, no long-term thinking involved. BlackRock’s IBIT held over 400,000 BTC. Collectively, ETFs were approaching 1 million BTC, representing roughly 6% of all Bitcoin in existence. Institutional inflows through spot Bitcoin ETFs have otherwise reinforced Bitcoin’s long-term market dominance, which sits at approximately 62.7% as of September 2025.
So the government transfer looked alarming on the surface. Big wallet. Big number. Coinbase. Markets panicked a little. But the government still holds just over 30,000 bitcoin from Silk Road — worth around $2 billion — sitting largely untouched. Court approval is required before any of that moves, as established through legal proceedings in Maryland.
Meanwhile, Coinbase itself posted $6.29 billion in net revenue for 2024, with $1.162 trillion in trading volume and net income of $2.579 billion. The platform held $404 billion in assets by year-end. They also signed a deal with the US Marshals Service to manage seized crypto. Notably, Coinbase reported $319 million in pre-tax crypto asset losses in Q2, a stark reminder that even the platform facilitating these transfers isn’t immune to market turbulence.
So yes, the government sends Bitcoin to Coinbase. That’s literally part of the arrangement now.
Nobody sold. It just looked that way.
