U.S. Transfers $768K in Seized LINK to Coinbase Prime

On Wednesday a U.S. government wallet transferred 98,590 Chainlink (LINK) tokens, estimated at about $768,000, to Coinbase Prime. Blockchain trackers flagged the deposit within minutes; on-chain records do not show an outbound sale.

On-chain tracker Lookonchain reported the transfer and tracking account Solid Intel flagged the deposit. Arkham identified the sending address as part of a U.S. government cluster that has moved assets seized after the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research in November 2022.

The assets originate from funds seized during government actions tied to the bankruptcy and the criminal case that resulted in a judge ordering Sam Bankman-Fried to forfeit $11 billion for victim compensation.

The tokens were sent to Coinbase Prime, the custody and trading unit selected by the U.S. Marshals Service in July 2024 to handle large-cap digital assets. A Coinbase blog noted the USMS selected Coinbase Prime to safeguard and trade Class 1 digital assets. Deposits to the platform have in prior cases preceded custody transfers, over-the-counter transactions or structured sales.

At about $7.66 per token, the transfer equals less than 0.4% of LINK’s roughly $225 million daily trading volume and about 0.01% of the 727 million tokens currently in circulation. Chainlink’s market capitalization is near $5.57 billion.

LINK’s price moved down about 2% over the past day, about 27% over the past month and about 49% over the past year. Further on-chain activity from the wallet should clarify whether the tokens will remain in custody, be sold via an OTC desk, or be liquidated.

The transfer continues a pattern of federal movements of seized crypto tied to the FTX/Alameda estate that have included Uniswap, Render, Ethereum, The Sandbox and stablecoins. The U.S. Marshals Service has managed seized cryptocurrency sales since at least 2014, when it auctioned bitcoins linked to the Silk Road marketplace.

Separately, the FTX estate has continued distributions to creditors. In March the estate completed a fourth distribution round that returned $2.2 billion to customers and creditors, and recovered assets from forfeiture and settlements are being directed toward compensating victims under court orders.