Reported by Cointelegraph: Data from Arkham Intelligence indicates the Bitcoin was seized from Banmeet Singh, a convicted drug dealer, during his January 2024 trial.
The United States government sent 3,940 Bitcoin to a Coinbase Prime wallet on June 26, onchain data from Arkham Intelligence revealed.
According to Arkham Intelligence, the transaction took place at 5:00 pm UTC and involved Bitcoin seized from convicted drug trafficker Banmeet Singh earlier in 2024.
The case of Banmeet Singh
In 2019, Singh was arrested by British authorities in London on drug distribution charges and eventually extradited to the United States in 2023.
The United States Department of Justice claimed that from 2012 to 2017, Singh ran a narcotics smuggling network that included distributors in Maryland, New York, North Dakota, Washington state, Ohio, North Carolina and Florida.
As part of the judgment against him, Singh was forced to surrender more than 8,100 Bitcoin, valued at around $150 million at the time, to U.S. authorities in what the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) characterized as the largest cryptocurrency seizure ever performed by the three-letter agency.
Singh was also sentenced to five years in prison in April 2024 but was given credit for time served and has reportedly been released by U.S. authorities. According to The Columbus Dispatch, Singh made plans to return to his native India directly following his release.
Widespread fears of government sell-off
Fears of government sell-offs impacting the Bitcoin market have gripped market participants in recent weeks after reports that the German government was unloading its Bitcoin worth roughly $2.76 billion at the time of writing.
The most recent transaction occurred on June 26, at 9:27 am UTC, with 345 Bitcoin sent to a wallet labeled “Flow Traders.”
The United States government also holds large quantities of Bitcoin acquired through seizures and asset forfeiture. Data from Arkham shows that the U.S. government currently owns roughly 214,000 Bitcoin valued at around $13 billion at the time of writing, making the U.S. government the largest state holder of the decentralized currency in the Arkham Intel database.
Selling pressure from the Mt. Gox bankruptcy estate has also stoked investor fears of a Bitcoin price decline as the former exchange begins the process of unloading 140,000 Bitcoin to reimburse injured parties of the infamous 2014 Mt. Gox collapse. However, exchange balances are at six-year lows, acting as a price-stabilizing counterbalance to these selling pressures.