Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) on Monday transferred an additional 1,500 bitcoins, worth nearly $95 million, to several cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Kraken.
Urgent: 🇩🇪 German government sends 1,500 more #Bitcoin It is worth $95 million on the stock exchanges 👀 pic.twitter.com/AZqs0UFWei
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) July 1, 2024
This follows a series of transactions since June 19, in which the German government moved Bitcoin worth nearly $220 million to various exchanges, according to data from Arkham.
The German government first seized these bitcoins after a large-scale seizure in 2013. The German federal police seized nearly 50,000 bitcoins, then worth over $2 billion, from the operators of Movie2k.to, a notorious movie piracy site that was active during that time.
These moves indicate a possible intention by German authorities to liquidate some Bitcoin as part of the crackdown.
The move by Germany mirrors recent actions by the US government, which also moved millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin to exchanges, signaling its intent to sell. In both cases, the transfers have sparked considerable speculation within the Bitcoin community about the potential impact on the market price of Bitcoin.
Despite the large movements, the majority of the seized bitcoins are still under the control of the German government. Some 44,692 bitcoins, worth around $2.82 billion, are still held in government wallets. This means that the recent transfers, while significant, represent a relatively small portion of the total holdings.
As the situation evolves, it remains to be seen how the Bitcoin market will react to these government-initiated moves.