The German government is continuing to actively liquidate portions of its substantial Bitcoin (BTC) holdings, transferring significant sums to various cryptocurrency
German authorities are continuing to sell portions of their substantial Bitcoin (BTC) holdings, with recent transfers amounting to $24 million, as per data analysis by Arkham Intelligence. These transactions, which involve moving Bitcoin to cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets, are part of a broader strategy that appears to be impacting BTC's current market dynamics.
On June 25, three separate transactions saw 900 BTC being moved by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which operates a government-labeled cryptocurrency wallet. Two of the transactions, each comprising 200 BTC, were sent to major exchanges Coinbase and Kraken. Meanwhile, a larger transfer of 500 BTC was directed to an address tagged as “139Po”, a wallet whose activities and ownership are yet to be fully ascertained, although it has previously interacted with the German government's wallet.
“UPDATE: German Government selling additional $24M BTC. In the past 2 hours the German Government has moved 400 BTC to exchange deposits at Kraken and Coinbase. They have also moved 500 BTC to address 139Po. We have yet to see where these funds are moved,” noted Arkham Intel via X.
These transactions are part of a series of Bitcoin sales by the government, which had previously transferred $130 million BTC on June 19 and $65 million BTC on June 20. The transactions from June 19 and 20 saw some funds returning from Kraken and smaller amounts from wallets linked to Robinhood, Bitstamp, and Coinbase. Initially, the wallet accumulated nearly 50,000 BTC, seized from the operator of the pirated movie website Movie2k.
“This is in addition to $130M BTC sent to exchanges on 19th June and $65M BTC sent on 20th June, although they received $20.1M back from Kraken and $5.5M from wallets linked to Robinhood, Bitstamp and Coinbase. Currently, the German government holds 46,359 BTC, worth $2.8B at current prices,” added Arkham.
The ongoing sell-off appears to have contributed to recent price pressures on Bitcoin, which has seen a decline of 11.7% over the past month and over 6.2% weekly, currently trading just above $61,000. According to analysts, the actions of the German government on centralized exchanges (CEXs) are being closely monitored and may be influencing BTC's weak performance.
As the market downturn continues, July is expected to bring further attention to the planned sell-off by the defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox, which will begin repaying its creditors. With over 140,00 BTC, valued at $9.4 billion, set to be distributed among approximately 127,000 creditors, the market could face additional selling pressure, potentially driving prices down further. However, Galaxy Digital’s head of research, Alex Thorn, suggests that the market may be overestimating the selling pressure.
At press time, BTC trades at $61,159.
