US government moves bitcoin as unlabeled wallets draw scrutiny

What happened

Galaxy Research tracked approximately 9,261 BTC, worth $770 million, into Coinbase Prime across two days. The same firm counted another 8,428 BTC arriving at the same address by Wednesday, Oct. 7, for a two-day total of roughly $770 million. Researchers also spotted 2,456 BTC from wallets that had not previously been tied to the U.S. government.

A separate accounting came from Arkham. That tracker recorded 12,267.02 BTC leaving a wallet that held seized Bitfinex funds, with the coins reaching addresses that carry no public ownership labels. The same report said government-linked wallets transferred 12,267 Bitcoin, worth about $1.01 billion, on October 8, and that no confirmed sale came with the transfers.

Why it matters

The destination of the coins matters because a deposit at an exchange does not prove a sale. Coinbase provides institutional custody and trading services to the U.S. Marshals Service, and a transfer to an exchange does not necessarily mean a sale is underway.

Policy also shapes what happens next. A March 2025 order established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and restricted sales of forfeited Bitcoin held there. At the same time, Galaxy attributed the 2,456 BTC from unknown wallets to government seizures based on where the coins were sent, and that connection has not been independently established.

What the data shows

Galaxy put the federal bitcoin balance at 319,086 BTC, down from its peak of 352,587 BTC on Aug. 13, 2024. It said 71% sits in two buckets that are not settled government property: the Lubian coins and the Bitfinex recoveries. Those holdings include approximately 94,643 BTC tied to the exchange's 2016 security breach and 127,271 BTC linked to Chen Zhi and the Lubian mining operation.

Galaxy examined 6,134 transactions dating back to 2013 and calculated that federal wallets had received 555,260 BTC while sending out 236,173 BTC, and it placed Wednesday's activity ninth among the largest daily government bitcoin outflows. The receiving address has accumulated 11,567 BTC since December 2025, including 6,406 BTC from recognized government wallets and approximately 5,160 BTC from unlabeled senders.

On the market side, US bitcoin ETFs posted approximately $485 million in net outflows on Oct. 7, and bitcoin traded near $82,000 on Thursday. Combined transfers reached approximately $1.87 billion over three days, and Arkham estimates government-linked wallets still hold about $25.5 billion in cryptocurrency.

What is still unclear

• Galaxy attributed the mystery coins to government seizures based on their destination, although that connection has not been independently established.
• The latest activity remains visible on the blockchain, but the final destination and purpose remain unknown.
• The Bitfinex case is still not finished: a federal court approved returning those assets in January 2025, although the principal wallet had not moved when Galaxy published its findings.

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