US Government Sends 4K BTC to Coinbase Prompting Bitcoin Price Volatility at 61K

Bitcoin (BTC) saw its price rise to $61,000 on June 26 as reports emerged of an impending BTC sale by the United States government.
BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The price of BTC struggled to maintain its previous day’s gains after the Wall Street opened, as per data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.
The uncertain behavior of the BTC price followed reports of coins from a wallet linked to the U.S. government being transferred to the exchange Coinbase. According to data from crypto intelligence firm Arkham, the total amount involved was 3,940 BTC ($240 million).
In response to this development, popular trader Skew commented on the market’s reaction, noting that it was relatively subdued. He observed that while some shorts were opening in expectation of a supply hitting the market, most longs were closing out.
At the time of writing, the U.S. government’s wallet still held over 213,500 BTC ($13 billion). This move was similar to Germany’s recent transfer of 6,500 BTC from its wallet, with 900 BTC being sold on June 25, as reported by Cointelegraph.
The timing of these combined sell-offs did not go unnoticed by market observers. Travis Kling, head of the crypto hedge fund Ikigai, described it as “interesting,” while crypto entrepreneur Vinny Lingham added, “Why are multiple governments selling their BTC? Starting to look co-ordinated…”
William Clemente, co-founder of crypto research firm Reflexivity, suggested that the large-scale distribution by Bitcoin whales in recent weeks could have been done with the government moves in mind. He told subscribers, “My guess is a lot of recent selling over last few weeks was whales frontrunning these selling headlines & explains crypto’s relative weakness to stocks.”
Furthermore, a look at the latest U.S. institutional flows showed that June 25 ended with a modest increase for the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These funds managed to attract $31 million, marking the first aggregate day of inflows since June 12, according to data from sources including United Kingdom-based investment firm Farside Investors.
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF netflows (screenshot). Source: Farside Investors
Popular trader Daan Crypto Trades had anticipated this positive result the day before, noting strong time-weighted average price, or TWAP, purchasing at Coinbase.
It’s important to note that this article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.