12,267 SEIZED BITFINEX BITCOIN LEFT A GOVERNMENT WALLET UNTOUCHED SINCE FEBRUARY 2024 — TEST PAYMENTS FIRST, THEN 3,000-COIN PIECES — WITHIN 74 MINUTES MOST SAT IN ONE BUSY WALLET NOBODY HAS NAMED

At 13:33 UTC on October 8, 2026, a U.S. government wallet that Arkham ties to coins seized after the 2016 Bitfinex hack sent out 12,267.02 bitcoin, about $1.01 billion. CoinDesk reported that no exchange deposit was recorded and called the pattern closer to reshuffling than a sale. Decrypt reported that the coins did not go to an exchange. Both read Arkham's labels. We read the transactions.

The wallet had held the same 12,267.02 bitcoin since February 28, 2024. Its first move sent 0.0012 bitcoin to one address and the rest onward. Ten minutes later, another 0.0012 went to a second address. Then came 3,000-bitcoin pieces: 6,000 to the first address and 6,267 to the second. A tiny test payment, then the full amount, is how you check an address before you send a large sum to it.

Neither address kept the coins. Between 13:55 and 14:47 UTC both were swept, together with other small deposits, into one wallet. About 10,957 of the bitcoin landed there directly; the rest went to three other addresses. That wallet is no cold vault. It has taken in more than 26 million bitcoin over about 118,800 transactions since March 2021, and it was still paying coins out when we checked. No public label names it. A sweep into a busy pooled wallet is what a deposit at an exchange or custodian looks like. It is not proof of a sale.

The count for October 7 is not settled either. Galaxy Research, via Cointelegraph, says 8,428 bitcoin went to Coinbase Prime that day. CoinDesk says about 3,200. Decrypt says about 2,574. They may be counting different wallets. No statement from the Marshals Service or the Justice Department appears in any of the coverage. Anyone can follow these coins block by block. Nobody outside can yet check who holds the keys at the end. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $81,749.