The US government has deposited approximately $9.29 million worth of Ethereum into Coinbase Prime, transferring 4,820 ETH from wallets linked to the FTX and Alameda Research collapse. The transaction, flagged by blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, occurred on July 15 and represents the latest in a series of controlled moves to liquidate forfeited crypto assets.
What moved alongside the Ethereum
The government-controlled wallet didn't just shift Ethereum. It also transferred roughly 5.489 billion SHIB tokens, 631,700 POWR tokens, and 1.06 million AERGO tokens to new addresses during the same transaction window. These assets originated from wallets seized after FTX's implosion in late 2022, when Sam Bankman-Fried's exchange and sister firm Alameda Research collapsed, wiping out billions in customer funds. Coinbase Prime, the institutional arm of the largest US-based crypto exchange, was selected by the US Marshals Service in 2024 to serve as custodian for these forfeited digital assets.
A pattern of modest deposits
This transfer follows a deliberate rhythm. In May, roughly $1.9 million in altcoins from the same seizure pool were deposited to Coinbase Prime, with smaller transactions following in June. As of the latest data, no sales or further movements from the July 15 deposit have been reported. Moving tokens to Coinbase Prime doesn't automatically mean they're being sold; the platform offers both custody and trading capabilities, so the government could be positioning assets for eventual over-the-counter transactions rather than dumping them into the open market. For context, the US government's total seized crypto portfolio exceeds $20 billion, making this $9.29 million deposit just 0.046% of that total.
The FTX aftermath continues
The FTX collapse remains one of the most consequential events in crypto history. When the exchange imploded in November 2022, it triggered a cascade of failures across the industry and left creditors scrambling to recover funds. Bankman-Fried was subsequently convicted and sentenced, but recovery for affected users has been grinding forward through bankruptcy proceedings and government asset liquidation ever since. The May, June, and July transfers have been relatively modest, and there's no evidence of immediate large-scale selling following any of these deposits. For Ethereum specifically, the 4,820 ETH moved represents a tiny fraction of daily trading volume, which routinely exceeds billions of dollars.