US Government Moves Bitcoin Again

The U.S. government has moved a small amount of Bitcoin seized from Alameda Research accounts on Binance.US.

Blockchain analytics firm Arkham flagged the transaction on Aug. 26, saying the Bitcoin came from funds seized from Alameda accounts at Binance and Binance.US roughly three years ago. 

Arkham did not say that the transfer represented a sale, and the destination of the latest Bitcoin movement was not specified in its alert.

The transaction is notable because the government has repeatedly moved assets connected to the FTX and Alameda seizures in recent months. In May, Arkham identified roughly $1.9 million of seized Alameda altcoins, including Render (RNDR), Uniswap (UNI), The Sandbox (SAND), Mask Network (MASK) and Axie Infinity (AXS), being transferred to Coinbase Prime. 

Earlier in July, government-linked wallets moved more than $288 million of seized Bitcoin and Ether to Coinbase Prime in transactions involving assets tied to several criminal cases.

A massive forfeiture effort 

The Alameda holdings are part of a much larger forfeiture effort stemming from the collapse of FTX. Arkham said in 2024 that three Alameda Research accounts on Binance and Binance.US containing more than $300 million had been seized by the U.S. government as part of a broader forfeiture action involving more than $700 million of FTX- and Alameda-related assets. The seized holdings included more than $102 million in Bitcoin and wrapped Bitcoin at the time.

Bankman-Fried was later sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $11 billion. The Department of Justice said Judge Lewis Kaplan authorized the government to use recovered funds to compensate victims of his crimes.

Government handling of the FTX-related assets has nonetheless continued. A U.S. Department of Justice inspector general report disclosed that the U.S. Marshals Service received a $627.9 million interbank settlement in October 2025 as a partial payment toward the $11 billion Alameda forfeiture order, with payments subsequently made to victims.