Over the past month, the cryptocurrency space has been abuzz with reports that the German government has been selling off large amounts of Bitcoin. These sales have had a negative impact on the price of Bitcoin, as well as the broader cryptocurrency market, sending the entire market into a tailspin. However, while the German government has been the most notable seller during this period, it is not the only entity to offload its Bitcoin holdings.
Genesis Trading Starts Selling $2 Billion Worth of Bitcoin Stock
Amid the German government’s bitcoin selloff, other entities selling bitcoin have emerged in the background, but not for long. Among them is Genesis Trading, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York in January 2023.
Following a court ruling in May 2024, which ordered Genesis Trading to return funds to its clients, the entity appears to have begun the early stages of returning these funds to its clients. Some of these clients are paid in cash and others in cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency trader @0xGumshoe revealed on X (formerly Twitter) that the entity has started selling bitcoin from its massive $2 billion stash. According to Data Through on-chain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence, the entity has sold a large amount of Bitcoin over the past month.
Are you serious
I can’t believe Genesis is now selling $2 billion worth of Bitcoin.
We’re not done with Germany FFS yet pic.twitter.com/GhW3uUjYjV
— Detective (@0xGumshoe) July 11, 2024
Looking back at history, Genesis Trading made a total of six Bitcoin transactions in June, all destined for Coinbase. On June 12, 2024, the bankrupt company sent 756,282 Bitcoin to Coinbase, worth $52.93 million at the time.
On June 13, 2024, she sent 670.5 BTC worth $45.8 million to the cryptocurrency exchange. The next transaction occurred a day later on June 14, 2024, with 1,209.1 BTC worth $81.16 million arriving on the exchange.
The fourth notable transaction was on June 18, 2024, when Genesis Trading sent 1,496.2689 BTC to the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, worth $97.15 million at the time. Two days later, on June 20, 2024, Genesis Trading sent another 811 BTC to the Coinbase exchange, worth $52.82 million at the time.
Last but not least, the transaction on June 21, 2024, which carried 2,131,268 BTC to Coinbase, worth $136.79 million. This was the largest single transaction the entity had ever made to the exchange, and there have been no other Bitcoin transactions since.
In total, Genesis Trading sold 7,074.4189 BTC, bringing the total dollar value to $466.65 million. While this volume is significantly lower than the German government’s selloff, it is still significant and has contributed to the selling pressure felt by the leading cryptocurrency.
German government is running out of bitcoin
The German government’s sell-off may have come to an end after a particularly scary market spurt. Initially, the German government had a total of 50,000 bitcoins, which were confiscated from the operators of the pirate site Movie2k.
However, with the ongoing sell-off, holdings have quickly been depleted, with over 40,000 BTC sold so far. At the time of writing, the German government has less than 5,000 BTC left. This is good news for the market as the sell-off is expected to ease once the dumping is over.
Featured image created using Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com