Authorities in Germany have transferred an additional 282.74 BTC ($17.6 million) to cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase, Bitstamp, and Kraken, which has sparked speculation regarding a potential asset sale.
Arkham, an on-chain analytics provider, identified the transactions by monitoring the movement of Bitcoin from addresses associated with the German government.
The decision was made after the German government initiated several Bitcoin transfers in recent weeks.
A movie piracy website, Movie2k.to, was confiscated from the country’s substantial Bitcoin inventory, estimated to be worth $3 billion.
According to a press release, the seizure of 50,000 BTC from the piracy website by German police in January was the “most comprehensive security of Bitcoins by law enforcement authorities in the Federal Republic of Germany to date.”
Germany Transfers Bitcoin to Numerous Exchanges
As per Arkham’s data, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) transferred 100 BTC ($6.2 million) to Coinbase, 150 BTC ($9.4 million) to Bitstamp, and 32.74 BTC ($2 million) to Kraken at approximately 8:20 a.m. UTC on July 2.
In addition, an address identified as “139Po” was sent 550 BTC ($34.3 million), which Arkham has yet to identify. However, it is suspected that the address may be an exchange.
The German government transferred approximately $193 million of seized bitcoin to known exchange addresses.
Additionally, $251 million has been transferred to the “139Po” address.
On July 1, the government transferred 200 BTC ($12.6 million) to Bitstamp, 100 BTC ($6.3 million) to Coinbase, and 100 BTC ($6.3 million) to Kraken. Additionally, 1,100 BTC ($69.4 million) was sent to the “139Po” address. These figures are the result of these transactions.
Interestingly, on June 26, the German government transferred 345.34 BTC ($21.2 million) to market maker Flow Traders following a test transaction. This has sparked speculation that the government may have sold the bitcoin through the firm.
Nevertheless, on June 27, it appeared that the government received 475 BTC ($29.2 million) from addresses associated with Kraken, Bitstamp, and Coinbase.
It received 310 BTC ($20.1 million) from Kraken on June 20 and an additional 90 BTC ($5.5 million) from wallets associated with Robinhood, Bitstamp, and Coinbase before that.
Currently, the German government possesses approximately 43,859 BTC, estimated to be worth roughly $2.7 billion at current prices.
This places Germany in the company of the United States, China, and the United Kingdom as one of the largest acknowledged nation-state holders of Bitcoin.
The Price of Bitcoin Remains Unchanged
Bitcoin has remained relatively stable in the past day, with a current price of approximately $62,739.
The leading cryptocurrency’s price has rebounded from its brief low point of under $60,000 last week, but it remains substantially lower than its price of over $71,000 in early June.
In the interim, analysts from QCP Capital contend that Bitcoin and Ether have historically demonstrated favorable performance in July due to positive seasonality.
A recent note stated that BTC had a median return of 9.6% in July and is known to rebound strongly, particularly after a negative June (-9.85%). This is when considering seasonality.
