Key Points
- German government addresses reportedly sent an additional $24 million in Bitcoin to Coinbase and Kraken.
- These transactions follow substantial transfers of seized Bitcoin last week.
The German government seems to have transferred an additional 400 Bitcoin (BTC), equivalent to $24.34 million, to cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Kraken. This move suggests a possible plan to sell the assets, following significant transfers of confiscated Bitcoin last week.
Additional Bitcoin Transfers
In addition to this, 500 BTC ($30.4 million) were moved to another address, but it is yet to be determined where these funds will be transferred to. This is on top of $130 million in BTC sent to exchanges on June 19th and $65 million in BTC sent on June 20th. However, $20.1 million was received back from Kraken and $5.5 million from wallets associated with Robinhood, Bitstamp, and Coinbase.
The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) also sent 200 BTC ($12.17 million) to each cryptocurrency exchange at around 7:38 a.m. UTC. Currently, the German government holds 46,359 BTC, valued at approximately $2.8 billion. Germany is one of the largest known national holders of Bitcoin, trailing behind the United States, China, and the UK.
Bitcoin Seizure and Transfers
In January, German authorities confiscated 50,000 BTC linked to the film piracy operation Movie2k. This seizure marked the largest amount of Bitcoin ever seized by German law enforcement. The suspects voluntarily transferred the Bitcoin to wallets controlled by German authorities, but it was unclear what law enforcement would do with the funds.
On June 18, addresses identified as belonging to the German government began making small, likely internal test transactions. These were followed by larger transactions, including $425 million worth of Bitcoin to another government-owned address. The same day, 500 BTC each was sent to Kraken, Bitstamp, and Coinbase, as well as another 500 BTC to another address.
On June 20, an additional 800 BTC was sent to the same address, followed by 200 BTC sent to Coinbase. However, the German government then appeared to receive back 310 BTC from Kraken on the same day. It also received a total of 90 BTC since June 20 from wallets linked to Robinhood, Bitstamp, and Coinbase.
The largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Bitcoin, is currently trading for $61,285. Its value has decreased around 6% since the German government began moving funds to exchanges last week. Bitcoin’s price briefly fell below $60,000 on Monday following the news that the defunct Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox is set to distribute around $9 billion worth of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash repayments from July.