A digital wallet linked to the “German Government (BKA)” identified by crypto analytics firm Arkham has been on the move with Bitcoin transactions since June 19, sparking interest within the crypto community. Speculation suggests that the German government may be offloading its BTC holdings.
The wallet, which has been in possession of nearly 50,000 Bitcoin (BTC) since February 2024, recently transferred around 6,500 BTC on June 19. These funds are believed to have been confiscated from the operator of the pirated movie platform Movie2k.
On June 19, the German government-associated wallet conducted four transactions, including sending 6,500 BTC valued at over $425 million to the wallet address “bc1q0unygz3ddt8x0v33s6ztxkrnw0s0tl7zk4yxwd” and transferring another 2,500 BTC worth $154 million to an internal address.
Following these transactions, the wallet address received 6,500 BTC, which was then moved to another wallet address “bc1qq0l4jgg9rcm3puhhfwaz4c9t8hdee8hfz6738z.” This address further split the received funds into four transactions of 500 BTC each. Two of these transactions were sent to crypto exchanges Kraken and Bitstamp, while the remaining two were transferred to undisclosed private addresses.
As of now, the German government-designated wallet holds 43,359 BTC valued at $2.83 billion. While not all the transferred funds have been liquidated, there has been speculation within the crypto community about the potential impact of such a significant sell-off of BTC.
In a similar vein, governments across the globe often confiscate Bitcoin and other digital assets from criminals, occasionally conducting auctions to sell off the seized crypto holdings. The United States government, for instance, has previously auctioned off a substantial portion of the BTC seized from the notorious dark web marketplace, the Silk Road. In 2014, American businessman and Bitcoin advocate Tim Draper acquired Silk Road BTC at an auction organized by the U.S. Marshals.