The German government has recently moved 3,000 Bitcoin (BTC) valued at $175 million to different cryptocurrency exchanges, hinting at a potential large-scale sell-off. The blockchain intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence disclosed the move on July 4th.
In the last couple of hours, they moved 1,300 BTC ($76 million) to exchange accounts at Kraken, Bitstamp, and Coinbase. Another 1,700 BTC ($99 million) was sent to address 139Po, likely for an institutional service or an off-exchange transaction.
The German government continues to retain 40,359 BTC (equivalent to $2.3 billion) in identified on-chain addresses. This comes after moving more than 3,000 BTC to exchanges in the past two weeks.
The ongoing movement of whales between the German and U.S. governments and the forthcoming repayments from Mt. Gox could exert considerable downward pressure on the price of Bitcoin. Since February 2024, the German government-associated wallet has significantly reduced its holdings of 50,000 BTC.
Justin Sun’s proposal to buy German govt. Bitcoin holdings
Governments worldwide occasionally auction confiscated crypto assets linked to criminal activities. In 2014, the U.S. Marshals conducted an auction where entrepreneur Tim Draper acquired a significant amount of Bitcoin, 29,656 BTC, that had ties to the Silk Road dark web marketplace.
Following in his footsteps, Tron’s founder, Justin Sun, offered to buy the entire Bitcoin holdings of the German government through private negotiation. Sun shared his intention on X, expressing his plan to engage with the German authorities to acquire all BTC off the public exchange, aiming to limit market impacts.
The source of the funds is may the seizure of 50,000 BTC from the illicit movie site Movie2k in Dresden last January. Although Arkham Intelligence labeled them as “German Government (BKA),” a spokesperson from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) disclosed that the unit does not hold the seized Bitcoin, hinting at another entity being in charge of their sales.
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