On July 4, a Bitcoin wallet associated with Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) transferred 1300 BTC (~$75.5 million) to centralized exchanges, according to data from Arkham.
Of the total amount, German authorities sent 400 BTC each to Coinbase and Kraken, and 500 BTC to Bitstamp.
An additional transfer of 1700 BTC was made to an address unidentified by experts, which had been used in previous transactions.
Initially, the BKA wallet held 50,000 BTC, seized by law enforcement in January from administrators of the pirate movie site Movie2k.
On June 19, authorities began moving the assets, some of which were already sent to exchanges. Arkham experts noted that, in addition to Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp, market maker Flow Traders was among the transaction recipients.
At the time of writing, the BKA Bitcoin address holds 40,359 BTC valued at ~$2.33 billion.
On July 4, users also noted what appeared to be test transactions from Mt.Gox wallets.
Mt Gox activating their wallets finally for repayments. Stay safe $BTC pic.twitter.com/SjST18kgoP
— Block_Diversity v.8 ™️ (@i_bot404) July 4, 2024
The trustee of the bankrupt exchange, which collapsed in 2014, had previously announced plans to begin phased repayments of 137,000 BTC to users at the start of the month.
This factor, along with the distribution of digital gold by authorities in Germany and the US, may have triggered a nervous market reaction. Bitcoin’s price fell below $58,000, with some experts suggesting a further correction to $40,000.
In June, analysts at JPMorgan warned of potential market pressure from the distribution of Mt.Gox bitcoins. However, Swan Bitcoin suggested that the impact of potential digital gold sales by the exchange’s creditors might be overstated.