Bitcoin Dips Below $70K After U.S. Government Moves Seized Silk Road Bitcoin

• Bitcoin price crashed by more than 4% in the past 24 hours. 
• The digital asset crashed after the US government moved 50K BTC to a new address.
• The new address transferred 19,800 BTC and 10,000 BTC, respectively to two other wallets.

Bitcoin (BTC) failed to hold its price around the $70,000 mark as selling pressure intensified in the crypto market. The primary catalyst for BTC’s price drop was the U.S. government transferring $2 billion worth of Bitcoin just two days after Republican candidate Donald Trump pledged to accumulate the leading digital asset.

According to the data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin was trading at $66,482 at the time of writing with a 4.33% decline in the past 24 hours. Further, the trading volume of the cryptocurrency surged 88.88% and stood at $40.28 billion with a market cap of $1.31 trillion. The significant rise in trading volume suggested that sellers were capitalizing on the recent gains. 

As per the data from Arkham Intelligence, the wallet flagged as “U.S. Government: Silk Road DOJ” moved 29,800 BTC worth close to $2 billion to an unknown address with no previous transaction history. While the intentions of the authorities remain unclear, investors became cautious of the move. 

Notably, the address that received the BTC further transferred 19,800 BTC and 10,000 BTC, respectively to two other wallets. Arkham suggested that the 10,000 BTC transfer worth approximately $670 million was a deposit to an institutional custody service. 

It is important to note that the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced in November 2022, the historic seizure of 50,676 Bitcoin related to the Silk Road dark web internet marketplace. For over ten years, the location of this BTC stash was a mystery but the authorities found the 50K BTC after raiding the house of Jimmy Zhong, the person responsible for stealing Bitcoin from Silk Road. 

As per the chart provided by TradingView, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) being valued at 55.95 means that the bulls are still in charge of the Bitcoin price trajectory but the gradient of the line suggests that the sellers are trying to take the reins back. 

Moreover, token distribution has begun as the sellers capitalize on the gains made in the past few days. However, in the longer time frame, the accumulation was on the rise since March.