The US government just moved approximately $9.29 million worth of Ethereum to Coinbase Prime, sourced from wallets tied to the FTX and Alameda Research collapse. The transfer, flagged by blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, involved roughly 4,820 ETH and represents the latest chapter in Washington’s slow, methodical approach to offloading billions in seized crypto.

What actually moved, and what else came along for the ride

The Ethereum wasn’t traveling alone. Alongside the 4,820 ETH, the government-controlled wallet also relocated around 5.489 billion SHIB tokens, 631.7 thousand POWR tokens, and 1.06 million AERGO tokens to new addresses during the same transaction window.

The assets originated from wallets seized following the spectacular implosion of FTX in late 2022, when Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange and its sister trading firm Alameda Research collapsed, vaporizing billions in customer funds. Coinbase Prime, the institutional arm of the largest US-based crypto exchange, was selected by the US Marshals Service in 2024 to serve as the custodian for these forfeited digital assets.

A pattern of controlled deposits