German government entity transfers 900 BTC to exhanges and sparks selling concerns
A digital wallet associated with Germany's Federal Criminal Police (BKA) orchestrated a transfer of 400 Bitcoin (BTC), valued at roughly $24.34 million, to platforms Coinbase and Kraken early Tuesday, according to insights from Arkham Intelligence. Furthermore, an additional 500 BTC ($30.4 million) was dispatched to an unidentified wallet tagged "139Po."
This wave of activity follows a notable trend of robust Bitcoin transactions last week, which saw $130 million funneled to various exchanges on June 19 and an additional $65 million on June 20. Addresses linked to the German authorities also reclaimed $20.1 million from Kraken and drew $5.5 million from wallets tied to Robinhood, Bitstamp, and Coinbase.
Miguel More, the Chief Executive Officer of Arkham, posits that transferring assets to exchange platforms frequently signals a disposition to liquidate holdings. Despite this, the sale of Bitcoin worth $24 million constitutes merely a drop in the ocean relative to the daily trading volumes, which surpassed $40 billion in the last day alone, as recorded by CoinGecko.
At present rates, the German government's portfolio includes 46,359 BTC, which translates to an approximate value of $2.8 billion. This vault of digital currency secures Germany's stance as one of the significant nation-state investors in Bitcoin, trailing behind the United States, China, and the United Kingdom.
The origin of the discussed BTC traces back to a confiscation of almost 50,000 BTC, initially valued over $2 billion, from individuals running the copyright infringement site Movie2k.to. The BKA came into possession of the Bitcoin in mid-January following a 'voluntary transfer' by the implicated parties.
This liquidity shuffle occurs amidst a downtrend in Bitcoin's valuation, which saw it hovering just over $61,000 early Tuesday. The flagship cryptocurrency has witnessed an 11% decline over the month and a 7% drop over the week, as per Bitstamp's figures.
Speculations abound regarding potential market destabilization due to augmented selling activity from the German government and the much-anticipated Mt. Gox reimbursements in July. Mt. Gox plans to dispatch nearly $9 billion in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to almost 127,000 creditors, culminating a decade-long wait for fund recovery.
