BTC Dips By 4% as U.S. Government Moves $2B of 'Silk Road' Tokens

TL;DR

• Bitcoin is down trading below $67k once again after rallying over the weekend.

• The bearish performance on Monday came after the US government moved $2 billion worth of Silk Road tokens to a new wallet.

BTC Slips Below $67k

After an excellent weekend, the cryptocurrency market has given back some of its profits. Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market cap, has lost more than 4% of its value over the last 24 hours.

Due to this bearish performance, Bitcoin has slipped below the $67k level. At press time, Bitcoin’s price stands at $66,858. 

The market selloff came after the  U.S. government moved $2 billion worth of seized bitcoin (BTC) on Monday. Blockchain data by Arkham Intelligence revealed that a wallet tagged as "U.S. Government: Silk Road DOJ" transferred 29,800 BTC to an unlabeled address with no prior history of transactions. The new address now moved 19,800 BTC and 10,000 BTC to two different addresses.

UPDATE: The U.S. Government has split the $2B Bitcoin into two addresses:

10,000 BTC ($669.35M): bc1qlap8hkt9genaljz5nt2zlehhudx63zlahr2zek
19,800 BTC ($1.33B): bc1qngydl7hmgdtmuqjmtsyj3pcwszv0yn5mj6kz4c

We believe this represents a 10,000 BTC deposit to an institutional… https://t.co/0aULBXGd8P pic.twitter.com/RTwtaqvMmM

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) July 29, 2024

The news saw Bitcoin drop below $67k on Monday after reaching the $70k level during the early hours of Monday. The government's move of the Silk Road bitcoins came after Donald Trump's weekend promise at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville to create a "strategic national bitcoin stockpile" if elected.

Altcoins also suffered losses as Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, lost 1% of its value. Ether is now trading at $3,340 per coin. Solana’s SOL is the worst performer amongst the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, down by 4.5%.