U.S. government-linked wallets on Thursday moved 12,267 BTC—worth about $1.01 billion—from the stockpile of Bitcoin seized from the Bitfinex hacker, according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham, the latest in a series of recent transfers of forfeited digital assets.

A wallet that Arkham labels as holding the Bitfinex hacker's seized funds sent the 12,267 BTC in a single transaction at 9:33 a.m. ET. Nearly all of it landed at a new, unlabeled address, while 0.0012 BTC went to a second wallet.

The coins not go to an exchange, and transfers between wallets are not necessarily a sign that a sale is underway. Arkham's data, however, marks both outputs as already spent, meaning the funds have since moved on to yet another set of addresses. Because Bitcoin's ledger is public, moves like these are visible to analysts in real time, which is why each government wallet movement draws immediate attention from on-chain observers.

The Bitcoin is part of roughly 94,000 BTC that the U.S. government seized in 2022 from Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan. Lichtenstein orchestrated the 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex, in which roughly 120,000 BTC was stolen. The seizure came roughly six years after the breach, underscoring how coins stolen on a public blockchain can be traced and recovered years later. As Decrypt reported in April, the government also moved a small batch of about 8.2 BTC from the same seizure to Coinbase Prime.

Thursday's transfer follows a string of similar moves in recent months. On Wednesday, government-linked wallets sent about $119 million in USDT to Coinbase Prime, along with roughly 2,574 BTC worth about $215 million, routed through intermediary addresses, according to Arkham. In July, the government shifted $288 million in seized crypto to Coinbase Prime.

Because Coinbase Prime also offers custody services, deposits there do not confirm a sale.

The activity raises fresh questions about what Washington plans to do with its holdings. President Donald Trump's March 2025 executive order directed forfeited Bitcoin into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve that would not be sold. That August, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent walked back earlier comments suggesting the government would not buy more Bitcoin, saying it would instead explore budget-neutral ways to add to the reserve.

Before the order, a federal court in January 2025 cleared the way for the sale of $6.5 billion in Bitcoin seized from darknet market Silk Road. How seizures that predate the reserve order—including both the Silk Road and Bitfinex stashes—will ultimately be handled remains an open question as the government keeps moving coins between wallets.

According to Arkham's data, the government still holds about 306,795 BTC—worth roughly $24.85 billion with Bitcoin trading near $81,000—making it one of the largest known holders of the asset, and keeping its wallet activity under close scrutiny from analysts and market watchers.