U.S. government moves $288 million in seized bitcoin, ether to Coinbase Prime

Summary

• U.S. government wallets moved about $288 million in seized bitcoin and ether to Coinbase Prime on Monday, with ether going directly and bitcoin routed through fresh intermediary wallets.
• The transfers appear to conflict with a March 2025 Trump executive order that directed seized bitcoin into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and barred its sale.
• While the Coinbase Prime movements may simply be for custody or internal shuffling, they are widely viewed as potential preparation for a sale, though they represent only a tiny fraction of the governments roughly $20.65 billion crypto holdings.

The US government just staged its seized crypto for an exchange, and it took an extra hop to get there.

Wallets tied to the government moved about $288 million in seized bitcoin and ether onto Coinbase Prime over roughly half a day on Monday, blockchain data from Arkham shows. The ether went direct, while the bitcoin took a detour through fresh intermediary wallets first.

The movements are despite an executive order in March 2025 by President Donald Trump, which designated seized bitcoin for the country's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and said it should not be sold.

A government wallet tied to Ryan Farace, the “xanaxman” case, sent 2,875 BTC worth roughly $178 million to a new address, which forwarded the full 2,875 BTC to a Coinbase Prime deposit wallet minutes later.

A second wallet linked to defunct exchange BTC-e sent 925.512 BTC worth $57 million through the same pattern, in from the seizure address, straight out to Coinbase Prime. Both intermediary wallets were emptied out.

The ether skipped the middle step, however. A wallet connected to Brian Krewson, the Oracle employee named in a $54 million laundering scheme, sent 30,007 ETH worth $53.09 million directly to a Coinbase Prime deposit address.