On July 11, a wallet associated with the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) transferred 5627 BTC, valued at $328.89 million, to trading platforms.
JUST IN: The German Government just sent another 3250 BTC ($191.02M) to Cumberland, Coinbase, Bitstamp, Kraken, 139Po (likely institutional deposit/OTC service), and address bc1qu.
So far today, they have transferred a total of 5627 BTC ($328.89M) to market makers and exchanges.… pic.twitter.com/DjCzVtqaCU
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) July 11, 2024
The transactions were received by centralized exchanges Coinbase, Bitstamp, Kraken, market maker Cumberland, service B2C2, and an unidentified address.
The wallet initially held nearly 50,000 BTC, seized by law enforcement in January from administrators of the pirate movie site Movie2k. According to Lennart Ante, co-founder and CEO of Blockchain Research Lab, the cryptocurrency was confiscated by the police department of the federal state of Saxony.
Regional legislation mandates the liquidation of seized assets within a certain period. This, the expert explained, accounts for the authorities’ bitcoin sales, which began with small amounts on June 19.
At the time of writing, the BKA address holds 9925 BTC ($582.43 million) — 19.9% of the original amount.
Some experts have linked the decline in the leading cryptocurrency’s price to the liquidations by German law enforcement, which intensified in early July.
Germany sold 21,180 BTC in a few days
I spent 100 hours analyzing their transactions
What I saw shocked me…
Here’s how government plans to trick you ?? pic.twitter.com/Cl2BTmcuCM
— bee? (@0xbeehive) July 10, 2024
However, DeFi analyst known as bee believes the market reacted too emotionally to the sales.
Economist and trader Alex Krüger also holds the view that buyers are capable of absorbing both this flow of coins and the cryptocurrency distributed among Mt.Gox creditors.
Arkham specialists recently noted that “the German government is selling, but BlackRock is buying.” The largest asset manager acquired 324 BTC for its spot bitcoin ETF.
The German Government is selling.
But Blackrock is buying. pic.twitter.com/7ViHl3GK82
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) July 10, 2024
After the plunge on July 5 below the $54,000 level, the price of digital gold recovered to around $58,700 at the time of writing. Amid the release of U.S. consumer inflation data, which showed a slowdown in prices, the cryptocurrency briefly rose above $59,000. However, sellers quickly reversed the gains.
Earlier, Bundestag member Joana Cotar criticized the authorities’ sales of confiscated bitcoins, calling these actions counterproductive.