US Government Moves Seized Bitcoin from Alameda Accounts
Bitcoin (BTC)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
u.today reports that the U.S. government has moved a small amount of Bitcoin seized from Alameda Research accounts on Binance.US. Blockchain analytics firm Arkham provided the data confirming the transfer but did not specify the destination or indicate that the movement represented a sale. This action continues a pattern of the government moving assets connected to FTX and Alameda seizures in recent months.
In May, Arkham identified roughly $1.9 million of seized Alameda altcoins, including Render, Uniswap, The Sandbox, Mask Network, and Axie Infinity, 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. Arkham noted in 2024 that three Alameda Research accounts on Binance and Binance.US containing more than $300 million had been seized as part of a broader forfeiture action involving more than $700 million of FTX- and Alameda-related assets.
These seized holdings included more than $102 million in Bitcoin and wrapped Bitcoin at the time. Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of the failed exchange, was later sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $11 billion. 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.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for BTC, measured when this story was written up on 26 August 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Bitcoin is trading at $79,023.75 with a 1-hour buy ratio of 44.7% and a 4-hour buy ratio of 43.0%, both sitting below the 24-hour buy ratio of 49.9%. This indicates that buying pressure is fading in the shorter timeframes compared to the full day. The volume delta shows net selling of -$9,605,302 over the last hour and -$13,495,762 over the last four hours. Volume delta measures the difference between buy and sell volume, so negative values mean sellers are dominating the flow. Despite this short-term outflow, the 24-hour volume delta is only -$903,088, suggesting the selling pressure has eased over the longer period.
The latest daily buy ratio of 46.7% sits at the 18th percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 49.2% - weaker buying than most days.
Twenty-four hours later
What BTC did over the 24 hours after the story broke. The market moves for its own reasons; this is what happened, not what the story caused.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for BTC, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the average buy ratio was 51.6%, making today's 24-hour ratio of 49.9% slightly lower by 1.7 percentage points. Spot volume today is $1,148,236,056, which is 0.54 times the weekly average, indicating a notably quieter trading day. While the coin saw a +14.0% price change over eight days, the current volume is less than half of the typical daily activity. This represents an ordinary day for volume but a slightly less bullish day for buying ratios compared to the weekly norm.