Cathie Wood Questions Big Movement In Old Bitcoin: 'Part Of A Government Settlement Deal?'

Renowned investor Cathie Wood speculated about the U.S. government’s role in the record movement of inactive Bitcoin BTC/USD on Saturday.

What Happened: Wood, the CEO of ARK Invest, was responding to an X post by Ark analyst David Puell, who highlighted the highest single-day amount of coinblock destruction in Bitcoin’s history.

Coin Days Destroyed is a metric that tracks the movement of BTC based on how long they have been held before being transacted. The more old coins move, the higher the metric.

Puell said a record 1.1 million coin-years, with 6.5 years of holding time value, moved in a single day.

The lack of price volatility in response, unlike typical movements of dormant BTC, piqued Wood’s curiosity.

“The Bitcoin market stabilized fairly quickly, so could this block be part of a government settlement deal? Is it now part of a government treasury?” Wood speculated.

A user, operating under a pseudonym, The Orca Sandwich, dismissed Wood’s argument, stating, “Since these coins are so old, you KNOW it’s not government-related. In 2011, real nerds mined Bitcoins in the basement.”

See Also: Dogecoin Shoots Up Over 6% As Elon Musk Launches America Party, Large Transactions Spike

Why It Matters: Wood’s speculation comes amid a backdrop of increasing government interest in cryptocurrencies, notably Bitcoin.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve earlier in March, with a provision to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional BTC, provided that those strategies have no incremental costs on taxpayers. However, little has come from the executive side since the order was signed.

The White House crypto and AI advisor, David Sacks, said in May that the path to acquire BTC for the reserve is ready, and it’s just a matter of getting the Commerce Department or the Treasury Department excited.”

As of this writing, the government holds over 198,000 BTC, worth $21.62 billion, seized as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings, according to Arkham.

Price Action:  At the time of writing, BTC was exchanging hands at $109,131.76, up 1.02% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. 

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.