Germany Transfers $17.6 Million Worth of Bitcoin to Major Exchanges, Indicating Possible Sell-Off
Ruholamin Haqshanas
Last updated:
July 2, 2024, 08:56 EDT
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2 min read
German authorities have transferred an additional 282.74 BTC ($17.6 million) to popular cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase, Bitstamp, and Kraken, sparking speculation about a potential sale of the assets.
The transactions were discovered by on-chain analytics provider Arkham, which has been closely monitoring the movement of Bitcoin from addresses linked to the German government.
This development follows a series of Bitcoin transfers initiated by the German government in recent weeks. The country’s significant Bitcoin holdings, valued at approximately $3 billion, were confiscated from the movie piracy website Movie2k.to.
In January, German police seized 50,000 BTC from the piracy website, marking it as the “largest seizure of Bitcoins by law enforcement authorities in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany,” according to a press release.
Germany Sends Bitcoin to Various Exchanges
According to data from Arkham, on July 2 at around 8:20 a.m. UTC, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) transferred 100 BTC ($6.2 million) to Coinbase, 150 BTC ($9.4 million) to Bitstamp, and 32.74 BTC ($2 million) to Kraken.
Additionally, 550 BTC ($34.3 million) were sent to an address labeled as “139Po,” which Arkham has yet to identify but suspects could also belong to an exchange.
In total, the German government has now transferred approximately $193 million worth of seized bitcoin to known exchange addresses.
Furthermore, an additional $251 million has been sent to the “139Po” address.
These figures come after the government sent 200 BTC ($12.6 million) to Bitstamp, 100 BTC ($6.3 million) to Coinbase, and 100 BTC ($6.3 million) to Kraken on July 1, along with 1,100 BTC ($69.4 million) to the “139Po” address.
Interestingly, on June 26, the German government sent 345.34 BTC ($21.2 million) to market maker Flow Traders following a test transaction, leading to speculation that they may have sold the bitcoin through the firm.
However, on June 27, the government appeared to receive back 475 BTC ($29.2 million) from addresses associated with Kraken, Bitstamp, and Coinbase.
Prior to that, it received 310 BTC ($20.1 million) from Kraken on June 20 and an additional 90 BTC ($5.5 million) from wallets linked to Robinhood, Bitstamp, and Coinbase.
As of now, the German government holds approximately 43,859 BTC, valued at around $2.7 billion based on current prices.
This makes Germany one of the largest known nation-state holders of Bitcoin, following the United States, China, and the UK.
Bitcoin Price Remains Stable
Bitcoin is currently trading at around $62,739, showing little change over the past day.
The leading cryptocurrency has recovered from its brief dip below $60,000 last week, but still remains significantly lower than its price of over $71,000 in early June.
Meanwhile, analysts from QCP Capital suggest that both Bitcoin and Ether historically perform well in July due to positive seasonality.
“Looking at seasonality, BTC has a median return of 9.6% in July and tends to bounce back strongly especially after a negative June (-9.85%),” they wrote in a recent note.
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