The German government has accelerated its Bitcoin (BTC) sell-off by transferring more than 16,000 BTC to crypto exchanges and market makers on July 8th. Earlier in the day, over 2,700 BTC were transferred, followed by a quick dump of over 13,200 BTC. This marks the largest single-day transfer of BTC by the German government.
Data from blockchain security firm Arkham revealed that the German government wallets sent a total of $155 million worth of BTC to multiple exchanges after the initial small dump. However, the selling spree did not stop there. Within hours, an additional 8,100 BTC worth over $463 million were sent to crypto exchanges. Another significant transfer followed shortly after.
Arkham’s analysis of wallet movements showed that the German government’s BTC transfers for the day reached a total of over 16,000 BTC. As a result, the value of Bitcoin dropped from above $57,000 to just below $56,000.
On July 8th, the German government wallet also made another notable transfer of 2,738.7 BTC to exchanges and market makers, including Kraken and 139Po.
Despite the sell-off, the German government still holds over 23,000 BTC. Recent transfers included interactions with Cumberland and the address bc1qu. The government’s Bitcoin holdings have significantly decreased in the past few weeks, dropping from 50,000 BTC seized earlier this year to approximately 23,787 BTC. The value of these holdings has fallen from over $3 billion to around $1.35 billion today. The German government had confiscated these bitcoins from the pirated movie site Movie2k.
Currently, the price of Bitcoin has decreased by 1.3% in the past 24 hours, hovering around $56,152. Over the past week, BTC has experienced a decline of more than 10%, with both the government sell-off and Mt. Gox repayments contributing to the downward movement.