The German government has sold over $54 million worth of Bitcoin on June 25 over a series of transactions that saw a wallet labeled “German Government (BKA) move 400 BTC to centralized cryptocurrency exchanges Kraken and Coinbase.
According to data shared by Arkham Intelligence, the German government sold an additional $24 million and moved another 500 BTC to a different address, after selling $130 million worth of the cryptocurrency on June 19 and $65 million on June 20.
The government received back $20.1 million from Kraken, and $5.5 million from wallets inked to Robinhood, Bitstamp, and Coinbase. Currently, it still holds 46,359 BTC worth over $2.8 billion.
This is not the first time the German government has interacted with the wallet it recently moved 500 BTC to, “139Po,” as Arkham Intelligence data reveals previous transfers of 800 BTC on June 20 and 500 BTC on June 19 to the same address.
Analysts fear these government selloffs could introduce substantial selling pressure, potentially pushing the price of Bitcoin further down. Bitcoin has already been on a downward trend, with a drop of 11% over the last 30 days and having recently dropped below the $60,000 mark before recovering, to now trade at $61,100.
The German government’s Bitcoin stash was originally of nearly 50,000 BTC, seized from the operators of a film piracy platform, Movie2k.to, which was last active over a decade ago.
The sell-off comes at a time in which Bitcoin’s price is also being affected by the recent announcement from Mt. Gox, a once-dominant cryptocurrency Exchange, that it’s set to distribute billions of dollars’ worth of recovered Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to creditors.
Mt. Gox was the world’s leading Bitcoin exchange before collapsing in 2014 following a series of hacks that resulted in the loss 850,000 BTC. After years of legal wrangling, Mt. Gox managed to recover roughly 140,000 Bitcoins, leaving a path to compensate creditors who had been left in the lurch.
The news sent shockwaves through the crypto market and led to a massive price drop, as analysts believe that the BTC – which could range from 65,000 to 140,000 and be worth nearly $9 billion – could be sold by creditors who waited over a decade to get back their funds.
Featured image via Pixabay.
