According to data from Arkham Intelligence, the German government continues to actively liquidate parts of its substantial Bitcoin (BTC) holdings, transferring significant amounts to various cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets. This wave of transfers includes Bitcoin’s recent $24 million move, underscoring a broader strategy that may be influencing Bitcoin’s current market dynamics.
German government makes no progress on Bitcoin liquidation strategy
On June 25, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which operates a government-labeled cryptocurrency wallet, moved 900 BTC across three separate transactions. Two of these transactions, involving 200 BTC each, were sent to prominent exchanges Coinbase and Kraken. Additionally, a larger transfer of 500 BTC was forwarded to an address tagged “139Po,” a wallet whose operations and ownership remain unclear despite previous interactions with the German government wallet.
“UPDATE: German Government Sells Another $24 Million BTC. In the last 2 hours, the German government moved 400 BTC to exchange deposits at Kraken and Coinbase. They also moved 500 BTC to 139Po. We have yet to see where these funds are moved,” Arkham Intel said 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. The June 19 and 20 transactions returned some funds from Kraken and smaller amounts from wallets associated with Robinhood, Bitstamp and Coinbase. Initially the wallet collected almost 50,000 BTC, seized by the operator from the illegal film website 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 got $20.1 million back from Kraken and $5.5 million from wallets linked to Robinhood , Bitstamp and Coinbase. Currently, the German government owns 46,359 BTC, worth $2.8 billion at current prices,” Arkham added.
The ongoing sell-off appears to have contributed to recent price pressure on Bitcoin, which is down 11.7% over the past month and over 6.2% weekly and is currently trading just above $61,000. Analysts suggest that the German government’s actions on centralized exchanges (CEXs) are a notable factor behind BTC’s weak performance.
Looking ahead, July’s market decline could be further exacerbated by the defunct crypto exchange Mount Gox plans to start paying back its creditors. With more than 140,000 BTC worth $9.4 billion to approximately 127,000 creditors, the market could see additional selling pressure, potentially driving prices down further. However, if suggested According to Galaxy Digital’s head of research, Alex Thorn, the selling pressure could be vastly overestimated by the market.
At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $61,159.
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