Despite last week’s sell-off, the German government recently sold 900 BTC, worth $24.33 million, to popular crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken.
The German government sold 900 bitcoin (BTC), valued at $54.75 million, and transferred 400 BTC, worth around $24.33 million, to popular crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken.
Following today’s transfers, the government currently holds 46,356 BTC, valued at roughly $2.83 billion, according to Lookonchain.
The government wallet holding over $2.83 billion could cause massive selling pressure, pushing Bitcoin’s price below the $60,000 mark.
On June 21, 2024, the German government broke the internet after it initiated the transfer of 200 BTC worth $13.6 million to crypto giant Coinbase.
German Government Initial BTC Transfers
According to Arkham data, on June 19, 2024, the country transferred 1000 BTC (500 BTC each) worth approximately $65.14 million to crypto exchanges Kraken and Bitstamp.
Arkham identified the wallet address as belonging to the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). The address moved 6,500 BTC to another address and then back to itself. Transaction data shows that $32 million worth of bitcoin was deposited on the Kraken exchange and a similar amount on Bitstamp.
Before the transfer, the wallet had nearly 50,000 BTC since February 2024. The money is thought to have been taken from the pirated movie website operator Movie2k.
BTC Selling Pressure from Germany and Mt. Gox
In addition to sending bitcoin to untagged wallets, most of the digital assets were sent to centralized exchanges (CEXs), which suggests that the government might be planning to sell BTC.
Bitcoin’s price has experienced a significant decline, dropping from 11% over the past month to more than 7% in the past week. According to Bitstamp data, the world’s largest crypto is trading just above $61,000.
On June 22, 2024, popular analyst Willy Woo noted that chart patterns suggest that the digital asset might drop for up to four weeks before its price rises again.
“Eyeballing this model… probably 1-4 weeks more of cooling down before Bitcoin price action is sufficiently boring,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, July might see more bitcoin selling pressure since the collapsed exchange Mt. Gox announced it will start repaying its former users.
The exchange owed roughly $9.4 billion worth of bitcoin to over 127,000 creditors. These creditors have waited for over 10 years to recover their funds from Mt. Gox, which could introduce significant selling pressure on the crypto asset.