The US government has liquidated ANT tokens that were previously seized from Alameda Research, the hedge fund run by Sam Bankman-Fried.
US Government Swaps Aragon’s ANT Tokens for ETH in Preparation for Planned Token Burn
The move marks the first time in almost two years that the government-controlled wallet, which holds around $974,000 worth of digital assets, has been active, according to Arkham Research.
On-chain data reveals that the US government used AragonDAO’s token redemption address to swap over 82,000 ANT tokens for Ethereum (ETH).
ANT tokens were seized from Alameda and converted through a mechanism offered by AragonDAO.
This token refund is part of the Aragon Association’s recent restructuring process, following the Swiss non-profit’s decision to dissolve itself and convert 86,343 ETH (approximately $155 million in November 2023) into the local government token ANT.
AragonDAO has announced that the deadline for token holders to swap their ANT tokens is November 2, 2024. After this date, all ANT tokens will be permanently burned, effectively removing them from circulation.
The association emphasized that “from this moment on, there is no purpose in continuing to hold ANT,” stressing that ANT tokens will no longer have any post-redemption benefits.
The transaction sequence began when an address starting with 0xb0692 funded the government wallet used to segregate assets allocated from Alameda.
AragonDAO’s redemption process allowed the government wallet to obtain 209,199 ETH worth $556,000 from the transaction.
Notably, a small transfer of 0.003 ETH ($7.03) from Coinbase was sent to the government’s address before the main transaction, presumably to cover gas fees.
*This is not investment advice.