Germany Transfers Another $17.6M Worth of Bitcoin to Major Exchanges, Hinting at Potential Sell-Off
German authorities have sent an additional 282.74 BTC ($17.6 million) to cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase, Bitstamp, and Kraken, raising speculation about a potential sell-off of the assets.
The transactions were detected by on-chain analytics provider Arkham, which has been monitoring the movement of Bitcoin from addresses associated with the German government.
The move follows a series of Bitcoin transfers initiated by the German government in recent weeks.
The country’s substantial Bitcoin stockpile, worth approximately $3 billion, was confiscated from Movie2k.to, a movie piracy website.
In January, German police seized 50,000 BTC from the piracy website, marking it as the “most extensive security of Bitcoins by law enforcement authorities in the Federal Republic of Germany to date,” according to a press release.
Germany Sends Bitcoin to Various Exchanges
According to Arkham’s data, on July 2 at around 8:20 a.m. UTC, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) sent 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.
🇩🇪 Don’t you love how we can spy on the government just like they spy on us.
German Government sends another 282 #Bitcoin worth $18 million to exchanges. pic.twitter.com/4b6zk17kRP
— Simon Dixon (@SimonDixonTwitt) July 2, 2024
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, which is 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 Flat
Bitcoin is currently trading at around $62,739, largely flat over the past day.
The leading cryptocurrency has recovered from last week’s brief low point of under $60,000, but remains significantly lower than its price level of above $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.
