Analysis: US Government Transfers 9,261 BTC Over Two Days, 2,456 from Previously Unidentified Sources; LuBian and Bitfinex Assets Account for 71% of Holdings

On October 8, Galaxy Research conducted on-chain tracking of recent BTC transfers and historical holdings by the US government. Over two days, the US government transferred approximately 9,261 BTC, worth about $770 million, to Coinbase Prime. This Coinbase Prime deposit address has received a cumulative total of 11,567 BTC since its activation in December 2025, of which 6,406 BTC came from wallets labeled as belonging to the US government, and 5,160 BTC from previously unlabeled wallets. Of the 9,261 BTC in this transfer, nearly half can be traced to funds recovered from the Bitfinex hack, with another portion coming from known Binance seizures; 2,456 BTC had no clear prior government attribution but were considered government-seized assets due to the same transfer path.

Upon further review, the US government currently holds approximately 319,086 BTC, with about 71% concentrated in LuBian-related BTC and Bitfinex recovered funds. In January 2025, a court approved the return of Bitfinex hacker funds, with approximately 94,643 BTC in the main address still unmoved; approximately 127,271 BTC related to LuBian were listed as assets due to a civil forfeiture lawsuit in October 2025, having entered government addresses since June–July 2024. Since 2013, government-related addresses have received approximately 555,260 BTC cumulatively (worth about $16.1 billion at then-current prices), with outflows of approximately 236,173 BTC (worth about $3.8 billion at then-current prices). Excluding internal government transfers, this transfer marks the 9th largest single-day BTC outflow in history and the largest since December 2, 2024. It should be noted that transferring to Coinbase Prime does not equate to a sale, and on-chain transfers cannot confirm the purpose of the funds.

[Rhythm]