DOJ-Labeled Wallet Transfers More Than 29,000 Bitcoins

According to onchain data, a Department of Justice (DOJ) labeled bitcoin wallet transferred 29,799.99 BTC, valued at just over $2 billion.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) bitcoin wallet has shifted 29,799.99 BTC to an unidentified Pay-to-Witness-Public-Key-Hash (P2WPKH) wallet, according to onchain data. This movement of bitcoin, valued at just over $2 billion, follows Germany’s sale of its bitcoin and a growing belief among U.S. politicians that seized coins should be held as reserves.

DOJ-Labeled Wallet Transfers 29,799.99 BTC Following Former President Trump's Statement

On Monday, a DOJ-labeled bitcoin wallet transferred 29,799.99 BTC, valued at just over $2 billion. The transfer occurred at block height 854,525, and the U.S. government paid a fee of 977 sats per virtual byte, roughly $0.67.

This large BTC movement took place as the price of the leading crypto asset slid under the $67K mark. At press time, BTC is trading for $66,863 among global exchanges, and the massive transfer of 29,799.99 BTC is the third-largest outgoing transaction from the U.9 government bitcoin wallet.

The massive BTC transfer comes after former U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that his administration would keep any confiscated bitcoin.

"They’re putting bitcoin up for auction, which is interesting,” Trump said at the time. "I would’ve never sold it. I would’ve kept it. I would’ve said, ‘Let’s hold onto it for a couple of years, and then we’ll see where we are.'"

At the time of Trump's remarks, the U.S. Marshals Service was auctioning off 4,000 confiscated BTC. The sales began on June 18, and the bitcoin was seized during the Bitfinex hack investigation.

While Trump stated that he would have kept the confiscated BTC, the Biden administration and the DOJ have chosen to auction off the seized coins. Moreover, a growing number of U.S. politicians believe that the government should hold seized coins like BTC as reserves.

The DOJ bitcoin wallet still has 183,439 BTC, valued at over $12 billion, according to Arkham Intelligence data. The wallet's last activity was noticed on July 22, when it shifted 58.74 BTC, valued at just under $4 million, to Coinbase.

This event went largely unnoticed in the industry, as it was overshadowed by the Mt Gox transfers and Germany's final BTC sales. Now, at 1:30 p.m. EDT on Monday, BTC is below the $67K range and reached an intraday low of $66,445.