The government of Germany began readying for its biggest Bitcoin dump yet on Monday, sending $900 million worth of the digital currency to trading venues.
On-chain data from Arkham Intelligence shows that over 16,000 BTC left the exchange’s wallet on July 8, leaving 23,787.7 BTC ($1.35 billion) remaining in its coffers.
Germany’s Biggest Bitcoin Sale
Arkham first flagged signs of a continued selloff at 8:32 am ET on Monday.
It stated the government sent 2738.7 BTC ($155.3 million) to “likely exchanges and market makers” including Kraken, Cumberland, an unidentified address, and an address likely related to an institutional or over-the-counter (OTC) trading service. Cumberland and the unidentified address were first-time recipients of government coins.
Less than 2 hours later, Arkham said Germany had sent another 8100 BTC ($463.2 million) to exchanges like Kraken, Coinbase, and Bitstamp, including $200 million sent to Flow Traders – a proprietary trading firm and market maker.
Immediately after that tweet, the government sent an additional 5200 BTC ($297.3 million) to Coinbase, Bitstamp, and the OTC address.
“That makes this the biggest day for them so far – over 16,000 BTC in total,” Arkham wrote. “Less than half of the BTC originally seized from Movie2k remains.”
Movie2k was a movie piracy website from which German police successfully confiscated 50,000 BTC in January of this year. Unlike its U.S. counterparts that have seized even larger sums of Bitcoin related to criminal organizations, Germany is relinquishing its coins for fiat currency at a much faster rate, much to the dismay of 2024 crypto bulls.
The Dreaded Bitcoin Selloff
Last week, Tron founder and crypto billionaire Justin Sun offered to purchase the remainder of Germany’s Bitcoin to alleviate sell pressure on the market. The government’s approach was also criticized by a German MP, who recommended the government hold their coins as part of a diversified treasury rather than selling them all.
Fears surrounding the German government’s rapid sell-off – coupled with those around Mt. Gox’s Bitcoin redistributions – have spurred a market correction this month driving BTC to its lowest price since February.
While the asset has since recovered above $56,000, digital asset trading firm QCP Capital predicts that BTC will face “subdued performance” as bankruptcy repayments loom.
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