German government sends over 16,000 BTC to exchanges

The German government wallets have added to the tempo of their Bitcoin (BTC) sell-off by sending more than 16,000 BTC to crypto exchanges and market makers on Monday, July 8.

After transferring over 2,700 BTC earlier in the day, the German government wallet quickly dumped more than 13,200 BTC.  

German government moves 16,000 BTC, largest single day transfer

On-chain data showed German government wallets transferred $155 million worth of BTC to multiple exchanges after an earlier small dump. But this appears to have only been the beginning, with Bitcoin’s reaction being a price drop from above $57k to just under $56k.

Within hours of these first transactions, however, the wallets sent an additional 8,100 BTC worth more than $463 million to crypto exchanges.

In minutes, another huge transfer followed.

According to blockchain security and intelligence firm Arkham tracked wallet movements showed the total for the day to have reached over 16,000 BTC. It makes today’s offloading the largest single-day dump by the German government, Arkham noted.

The German Government sent another 5200 BTC ($297.3M) to Kraken, Bitstamp, Coinbase and 139Po right after we posted this tweet. That makes this the biggest day for them so far – over 16,000 BTC in total.

They currently hold 23,787.7 BTC ($1.35B). Less than half of the BTC… pic.twitter.com/tO7r0J0w08

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) July 8, 2024

Per on-chain data, the other notable transfer from the German government wallet on July 8 was the 2,738.7 BTC sent to exchanges and market makers, including Kraken and 139Po.

German government still hold over 23,000 BTC

According to Akham, these latest BTC transfers included fresh interactions with Cumberland and the address bc1qu. The prolific selling has seen the German government’s Bitcoin holdings decrease sharply in the past few weeks.

From 50,000 bitcoin seized early this year, on-chain data shows Germany’s current BTC holdings stand at around 23,787 BTC. The value of the holdings has fallen from over $3 billion to around $1.35 billion today. The German government seized these bitcoins from pirated movie site Movie2k.

Bitcoin price is currently down 1.3% in the past 24 hours to change hands around $56,152.

BTC price is down more than 10% in the past week, with both the government selling and Mt.Gox repayments contributing to the downside movement.