The German government has sold about $325 million worth of bitcoin in the past 48 hours and may sell more soon
The price of bitcoin (BTC) has experienced a drop, falling about 3.5%, as Germany sold $325 million worth of crypto in two days.
The development came after the German government transferred 200 BTC, valued at $13.6 million, to the leading crypto exchange, Coinbase. On June 19, the government also transferred 000 BTC (500 BTC each) worth approximately $65.14 million to crypto exchanges Kraken and Bitstamp.
In the last hour, bitcoin has dropped nearly 1.2%, continuing a downward trend of almost 9% over the last two weeks.
Germany Selling off Bitcoin
Many think the drop occurred because German authorities started selling off seized bitcoin. Germany, the biggest European economy, recently began selling a $3 billion bitcoin stash taken from the movie piracy site Movie2k.to in 2020.
In January, German police seized 50,000 BTC from a piracy website. According to a press release, it was the biggest bitcoin confiscation by law enforcement in Germany so far.
According to blockchain analytics firm Arkham, the German government has sold about $325 million worth of bitcoin in the past 48 hours and may sell more soon, shared on the X platform yesterday.
In addition, the German government transferred $600 million worth of BTC, sending $130 million to four likely exchange deposits, including Kraken and Bitstamp. Currently, they still hold $3.05 billion in bitcoin.
BTC Transferred by the U.S. Government
Meanwhile, on June 18, 2024, a wallet identified as belonging to the U.S. government transferred 30,175 bitcoins. At the time, bitcoin was worth around $65,000, roughly $2 billion.
The last confirmed sale by the government was on March 12, 2023. A memo filed in the Southern District of New York states that the U.S. sold 9,861.1707894 of the 50,000 bitcoins seized from the Silk Road hack. After transaction fees, the government earned $215.5 million.
Around 2,000 bitcoins were transferred to a wallet identified by Arkham Intelligence as belonging to the crypto exchange Coinbase. The rest of the digital assets were moved to a wallet Arkham confirmed is owned by the government.