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Bitcoin

US government's 8,428 BTC transfer to Coinbase Prime is its biggest outflow day since 2024

The US government transferred 8,428 BTC to Coinbase Prime on Wednesday, its largest single-day outflow of bitcoin since December 2, 2024, Galaxy Research data showed. This outflow ranks ninth

AnonymousCryptoCompass newsroom
October 8, 2026
3 min read
NEWS
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The US government transferred 8,428 BTC to Coinbase Prime on Wednesday, its largest single-day outflow of bitcoin since December 2, 2024, Galaxy Research data showed. This outflow ranks ninth among all days since 2013.

Another 834 BTC moved on Tuesday. The two-day total reaches 9,261 BTC, worth ~$770 million.

Galaxy flagged 2,456 coins from previously unknown holdings

Galaxy said almost half the bitcoins were recovered from the Bitfinex hackers. Known Binance seizures supplied another portion.

Galaxy’s flow chart shows three Bitfinex recovery wallets sent 4,239 BTC, and two wallets of exchange-surrendered seizures sent 1,227 BTC. The other 3,796 BTC were sent from five wallets with no public label, including 2,456 BTC from a single address.

8,428 BTC outflow ranks as the US government's largest since 2024. Galaxy Research flow chart of the 9,261 BTC sent to the government’s Coinbase Prime deposit address on October 6 and 7, 2026.

“But 2,456 BTC came from previously unknown holdings, which we now assume were USG seizures because they deposited into the USG Coinbase Prime deposit address,” Galaxy Research wrote on X.

With each sender, it’s the same modus operandi. First, a modest test amount went to the deposit address, the rest to a one-time address that was swept into it a block later.

Next, in one to three blocks, Coinbase Prime moved the coins into its own wallets. The deposit address went live in December 2025 and has taken in 11,567 BTC since then.

Known government wallets furnished 6,406 BTC of it. About 5,160 BTC came from senders without a government label, using the same deposit process since April.

Lubian and Bitfinex cases tie up 71% of the federal stockpile

Galaxy’s tally now stands at 319,086 BTC, versus Washington’s wallets, which held 352,587 BTC at their August 13, 2024, high. Galaxy says 71% of that balance is not settled government property.

Chen Zhi’s Lubian case accounts for 127,271 BTC. The DOJ filed for civil forfeiture of those coins in October 2025. There’s also 94,643 BTC from the Bitfinex hack of 2016. When Galaxy published, the main wallet still hadn’t moved.

A federal judge signed off in January 2025 on handing them back to Bitfinex.

Coinbase Prime holds and trades seized assets for the US Marshals Service. A deposit there doesn’t confirm a sale.

President Donald Trump’s March 6, 2025, executive order states that bitcoin deposited into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve “shall not be sold.” It still permits assets to be released under a court order or for return to identifiable and verifiable victims of crime.

Samourai Wallet’s 57.55 BTC arrived at a Coinbase Prime address on November 3, 2025, and the address soon registered zero. In January, the White House said the DOJ had confirmed those coins were never liquidated.

The government transferred 2.438 BTC seized from Glenn Olivio to a Coinbase account in April, Cryptopolitan reported.

Galaxy’s books show 6,134 government transactions since 2013. Leaving out internal shuffles, 555,260 BTC came in, and 236,173 BTC went out.

Between 2013 and 2015, the US Marshals auctioned Silk Road coins. Since 2020, the government has seized far more than it has sold.

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