U.S. Moves $288M in Seized Crypto to Coinbase Despite Trump Order

The US government moved about $288 million in seized bitcoin and ether onto Coinbase Prime on Monday, blockchain data from Arkham shows. The transfers ran over roughly half a day. And they cut against a March 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump, which designated seized bitcoin for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and said the coins should not be sold.

Following the coins

The bitcoin took the scenic route. A government wallet tied to Ryan Farace, the "xanaxman" case, sent 2,875 BTC worth about $178 million to a fresh address, which forwarded the entire stack to a Coinbase Prime deposit wallet minutes later. A second wallet, linked to the defunct exchange BTC-e, ran 925.512 BTC worth $57 million through the same choreography: in from the seizure address, straight out to the exchange. Both intermediary wallets were emptied once the coins passed through.

The ether went straight

Ether skipped the middle step entirely. A wallet connected to Brian Krewson, the Oracle employee named in a $54 million laundering scheme, sent 30,007 ETH worth $53.09 million directly to a Coinbase Prime deposit address. There was one more wrinkle. Some 140.214 BTC bounced between government Coinbase Prime addresses and a Coinbase cold wallet, showing up on both the inflow and outflow side in what reads as internal shuffling.

Staging, not a sale

Landing coins on an exchange is not the same as selling them. Coinbase Prime also handles custody, financing and staging, so routing the Farace and BTC-e coins there does not prove the government is cashing out. The context still matters, though. Big holdings usually sit in cold storage for security, so when they move onto an exchange, traders tend to read it as preparation for a sale or a swap into something like stablecoins.

Against the full pile, Monday's batch is a rounding error. Government wallets still hold roughly $20.65 billion, including 324,552 BTC, 28,394 ETH and 145.549 million USDT. What nobody can yet say is whether that $288 million was routine staging or the first move toward the sale the executive order was supposed to prevent.