US Government Sends $984K in Seized FTX Altcoins to Coinbase

The U.S. government moved $984,000 in forfeited cryptocurrencies to Coinbase on June 10, the latest in a months-long liquidation of tokens seized from FTX and Alameda Research. Onchain Lens, a blockchain tracker, reported that the batch included $216,000 worth of Chainlink (LINK), Aave (AAVE), Chiliz (CHZ), and Balancer (BAL). Earlier the same day, 98,591 LINK tokens worth $768,000 had already been deposited into Coinbase from the same wallet cluster, according to a separate tracker post.

The transfers draw from a pool of alternative cryptocurrencies that the Department of Justice confiscated after Sam Bankman-Fried's conviction in 2023. A federal judge ordered Bankman-Fried to forfeit $11 billion, with recovered funds directed toward victim compensation. Under federal forfeiture procedures, the government can sell such property, deposit the proceeds into a forfeiture fund, and, in some cases, use part of those funds to compensate victims. The U.S. Marshals Service selected Coinbase Prime in 2024 to safeguard and trade the government's large-cap digital assets, making Coinbase the primary off-ramp for these liquidations.

The June 10 deposit is one in a series that stretches back to at least November 2025. On Nov. 27–28, 2025, a wallet cluster linked to the government moved 15.1 million TRX ($4.2 million), 545,095 FTT ($348,940), plus smaller amounts of KNC and FET within a six-hour span. On Dec. 11, 2025, 1,934 WETH ($6.43 million) and $13.58 million in BUSD shifted to a new address. By May 2026 the pace quickened. On May 19, 319 ETH ($673,000) and $933,774 in USDT, DAI, and USDC arrived at Coinbase. On May 27, $1.9 million in tokens (including UNI, RNDR, SAND, MASK, AXS, and APE) plus $2.656 million in DAI were deposited. Two days later, roughly $800,000 in Bitcoin, Basic Attention Token, Yearn Finance, and 0x moved to Coinbase. The June 10 batch brings the visible total of government altcoin sales to well over $15 million since November 2025.

These transfers are separate from the FTX bankruptcy estate's asset sales. The estate liquidates its holdings to repay creditors under a Chapter 11 plan approved by a bankruptcy court. The government disposes of confiscated crypto from criminal forfeitures, which has a different legal mandate and timeline. The forfeiture wallets hold a broad range of tokens, many of which have thin order books. Onchain Lens and Arkham Research maintain public tags on the addresses–0x9359…8c79 and 0x9aca…5cb0–allowing anyone to monitor new outflows in real time.

Tokens like Chiliz, Balancer, and Reserve Rights (RSR) trade less than $1 million per day on major exchanges. A $200,000 sell order from the government would represent a material fraction of that volume and can shift the price against anyone holding the same token. Chainlink, with deeper liquidity, absorbed the $768,000 LINK deposit on June 10 without visible disruption, the trackers noted. For the smaller-cap tokens in the forfeiture pool, even modest government moves can dominate the order book.

The government's total crypto portfolio, as reported in May 2026, stood at $27.06 billion across 610 wallet addresses. That figure is dominated by 328,361 Bitcoin worth roughly $26.64 billion. The altcoin portion, though smaller, is being systematically reduced. No liquidation plan has been published; the weekly or bi-weekly pattern since November 2025 suggests more Coinbase deposits are likely.

The addresses tagged in recent transfers are the cleanest way to track the next batches. Onchain Lens and Arkham Research will flag those movements, often within minutes. For traders holding any of the affected tokens, a fresh government outflow is a short-term signal worth watching–especially when the deposit size exceeds 10% of the token's daily exchange volume.