The German Government just conducted a significant transaction involving 2700 BTC at about $154.60 million in value and sent it to various exchanges such as Kraken, Bitstamp, and Coinbase. This address belongs to a likely institutional deposit/OTC service under ‘139Po’, among others like ‘bc1qu’. Arkham Intelligence, currently tracking the German Government’s sell-off drive, brought the transaction to light just one hour ago.
Bitcoins came into the possession of the German Government when authorities were shutting down Movie2k, the most famous German illegal user-contributed video directory. Hence, the Government delivered 4169 BTC worth $239.62 million from exchange addresses associated with Kraken, Bitstamp, and Coinbase with the code 139Po last night. This morning, an additional 500 BTC was received, which had previously been unsold. Presently, 6894 BTC is held by the German Government, totaling $394.50 million, and they collectively comprise 13.8 percent of the 50K Bitcoin that police first took when they shut down Movie2k in August 2020. This seizing is part of several German government confiscation and asset control operations – this time concerning cryptocurrency.
It is reported that the Bitcoin was part of an allotment that the German Government had previously sent to Coinbase and other crypto exchanges. From that time period until now, Coinbase has sold a portion of this Bitcoin—an amount so negligible in quantity for the exchange to bother counting or grouping together. However, Bitcoin’s sudden selling weighed on investor sentiment, as the Crypto Fear and Greed Index slid from 27/100 to its all-time low at just 26/100.
The amount seized by the German Government is much less than the Bitcoin confiscated by other governments, including $13 billion in the US and $3.6 billion in the UK. Ever since the German Government started selling off its seized crypto on June 19th, bitcoin’s price has been down significantly, and today’s development just raises more risk of other governments joining to sell their loot, which would only add additional pressure to Bitcoin price.