Approximately $2 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) seized by US authorities, in connection with the Silk Road marketplace, has been moved to a new address. Blockchain data from April 2 revealed that a wallet associated with the US Justice Department conducted a 0.001 BTC test transaction to a Coinbase Prime address. Subsequently, the same wallet transferred 30,174 BTC, equivalent to roughly $2 billion at the time, to a different address.
Online investigators identified this wallet as the one containing Bitcoin seized from James Zhong, who was convicted in 2022 for his role in the Silk Road case. In 2012, Zhong stole over 50,000 BTC from the Silk Road platform. In 2021, US authorities raided his property and discovered hard wallets holding Bitcoin. The majority of the seized cryptocurrency was sent to the same address that initiated the transfer of over 30,000 BTC on April 2.
Silk Road was a marketplace that facilitated the trading of illicit goods such as weapons, drugs, and stolen credit card information. Ross Ulbricht, the creator of Silk Road, was arrested by US authorities in 2013 and is currently serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
In March 2023, US government authorities reported the sale of approximately 9,861 BTC seized from Zhong for over $215 million, leaving around 40,000 BTC remaining. The news of the transaction saw BTC fall by 3.74% over the past 24 hours, as the potential sale of BTC will add to more selling pressure in the market.