A cryptocurrency wallet associated with the German government has transferred more than 3,000 Bitcoin, valued at over $172 million, in separate transactions to three cryptocurrency exchanges and another wallet.
On July 4, blockchain tracker PeckShieldAlert flagged a notable outgoing transfer of 1,300 Bitcoin (BTC) from a cryptocurrency wallet labeled “German Government (BKA)”. The $75 million worth of Bitcoin was distributed across three major crypto exchanges: Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp.
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Source: PeckShieldAlert
Additional investigation by Cointelegraph revealed that simultaneously, the German government wallet transferred another 1,700 BTC to a different wallet address. PeckShield later confirmed to Cointelegraph that a total of 3,000 BTC had been moved from the wallet. The initial 1,300 BTC went to centralized exchanges, while the remaining 1,700 BTC were sent to a separate crypto wallet, according to data from the blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence.
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The impact on Bitcoin’s market includes increased selling pressure due to the ongoing movement of significant amounts of BTC by both the German and U.S. governments. This, combined with impending Mt. Gox repayments, could potentially intensify the selling pressure on Bitcoin.
Since February 2024, the German government-labeled wallet has held 50,000 BTC and has progressively transferred a substantial portion of its holdings in recent months. Governments globally, including Germany, regularly confiscate Bitcoin and other digital assets linked to illegal activities, sometimes auctioning them off.
The U.S. government has previously sold a considerable amount of Bitcoin seized from the notorious dark web marketplace Silk Road. In 2014, American entrepreneur and Bitcoin proponent Tim Draper purchased 29,656 BTC from the Silk Road assets at a U.S. Marshals Service auction.
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