9,800 Bitcoin Tied To Silk Road Moving To New Wallet

Key Points:

• The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has transferred 9,825 Bitcoin linked to the Silk Road darknet marketplace to new addresses in two transactions.
• The DOJ previously sold 9,800 BTC to Coinbase for $215 million and plans to sell the remaining balance of over 40,000 Bitcoins in multiple installments this year.
• There is controversy surrounding the transfers as the assets may potentially be moved back to their original wallets under new addresses, and the transactions are currently experiencing confirmation delays due to insufficient transaction fees of only $8.

Around 9,800 Bitcoin (BTC) linked to the Silk Road are in transit. It would be the biggest transfer of funds associated with the now-defunct darknet marketplace in months.

According to on-chain statistics, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) confiscated 9,825 Bitcoin worth $302 million in connection with the defunct darknet marketplace Silk Road which were relocated to different addresses earlier today, July 12.

According to the Blockchair dashboard, the BTC was transmitted to new addresses in two transactions.

A total of 8,200 Bitcoin are being moved to new wallets. The remaining monies are being transferred to new wallets, and there is some controversy about whether this constitutes as formally migrating since these assets may be transferred back to their original wallets under new addresses.

The first transaction sends 0.01 BTC to the wallet 361yog, but the second sends 506 BTC to a different address. These monies come from two wallets, the most important of which is this one.

Yet, US goverment sold 9,800 BTC straight to the US-based site Coinbase in March for $21,800 each token, making $215 million. The authorities indicated intentions at the moment to sell the over 40,000 Bitcoin balance in four installments this calendar year.

The Silk Road Bitcoin refers to the more than 50,000 BTC confiscated from James Zhong by the US authorities in 2022. Zhong hacked the dark web marketplace to steal cash in 2012, and it took almost a decade for the authorities to retrieve the stolen assets.

The Department of Justice’s outstanding Silk Road transactions are presently encountering a confirmation delay, which might be caused by insufficient transaction costs.

The DOJ seems to have set aside a pittance of $8 in fees for these transactions. Bitcoin blocks are processed once every 10 minutes on average.

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