German Govt on Bitcoin Selling Spree Offloads $195M BTC in 24 Hours

The German government appears to have embarked on a bitcoin (BTC) selling spree, diminishing its confiscated stash significantly.

According to a tweet by blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, crypto wallets linked to the German government have moved BTC worth $195 million to addresses tied to centralized exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp.

German Government Diminishes BTC Stash

The bitcoins moved in the last 24 hours were part of a 50,000 BTC stash the German government confiscated from a film piracy site, Movie2k, in mid-January. Arkham announced at the time that the German government had joined its platform after the seizure, and the stash was worth $2.12 billion per bitcoin’s trading price then.

The suspects in the Movie2k case had voluntarily transferred the bitcoins to the German Federal Criminal Police Office, and the agency has held the assets since then, making no sales. On June 19, the government began its spree by moving $600 million worth of BTC from the wallet holding the 50,000 BTC stash.

The German government-linked Bitcoin address executed several transactions yesterday, with the transfers to exchanges totaling $130 million. One of the wallet addresses that received the outflows further moved the funds in several batches to Kraken, Bitstamp, and two non-labeled private addresses.

On June 20, the German government resumed its transfers and sent $65 million worth of BTC to two exchanges, including Coinbase. Despite the massive selling from the entity, the wallet still held over 47,000 BTC worth more than $3 billion at the time of writing. However, the BTC sales have raised concerns in the crypto community over the impact of such movements on the digital asset’s price.

BTC Plunges 8% in Two Weeks

Over the past two weeks, BTC has lost more than 8% of its value, tumbling from $71,000 to $65,000. The decline comes as the primary digital asset retraces from the rally it experienced last month. Community members are concerned that the German government’s selling spree may pull Bitcoin’s price even further, triggering more liquidations in the market.

Meanwhile, the German government is not the only official entity selling bitcoins seized from criminals. The U.S. has already offloaded a significant portion of the bitcoins it confiscated from the dark web marketplace, Silk Road.