The German government continues to actively liquidate a portion of its large Bitcoin (BTC) holdings, moving significant sums to various cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets, according to data from Arkham Intelligence. This wave of transfers includes Bitcoin’s recent $24 million move, highlighting a broader strategy that could influence current Bitcoin market dynamics.
German government advances Bitcoin liquidation strategy
On June 25, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which operates a government-labeled cryptocurrency wallet, transferred 900 BTC across three separate transactions. Two of these transactions, each involving 200 BTC, were sent to major exchanges Coinbase and Kraken. Additionally, a larger transfer of 500 BTC was directed to an address labeled “139Po,” a wallet whose activities and ownership remain unclear, despite previous interactions with the German government wallet.
“UPDATE: German government sells another $24 million worth of BTC. In the last 2 hours, the German government transferred 400 BTC to exchange deposits at Kraken and Coinbase. They also moved 500 BTC to address 139Po. We have not yet seen where these funds are being transferred,” Arkham Intel reported via X.
These transactions are part of a larger pattern of Bitcoin sales by the government, which previously transferred $130 million BTC on June 19 and $65 million BTC on June 20. Transactions on June 19 and 20 saw some funds return from Kraken and smaller amounts from associated wallets at Robinhood, Bitstamp and Coinbase. Initially, the wallet accumulated almost 50,000 BTC, seized from the operator from the pirated movie site Movie2k.
“This is in addition to the $130 million BTC sent to exchanges on June 19 and the $65 million BTC sent on June 20, although they received $20.1 million in return from Kraken and $5.5 million of dollars from wallets linked to Robinhood, Bitstamp and Coinbase. Currently, the German government holds 46,359 BTC, worth $2.8 billion at current prices,” Arkham added.
The ongoing sell-off appears to have contributed to recent price pressures for Bitcoin, which has seen a decline of 11.7% over the past month and more than 6.2% weekly, currently trading just above $61,000. Analysts suggest that the German government’s actions on centralized exchanges (CEX) are a notable factor behind BTC’s weak performance.
Looking ahead, the market slowdown could be further exacerbated in July as the defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox plans to start paying back his creditors. With over 140,000 BTC worth $9.4 billion spread across around 127,000 creditors, the market could face additional selling pressure, which could push prices down further. However, as suggested According to Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, selling pressure may be significantly overestimated by the market.
At press time, BTC was trading at $61,159.
Featured image created with DALL·E, chart from TradingView.com
