Markets
US and Germany move over $100 million in Bitcoin as market braces for impact
The German government is moving huge sums of money Bitcoin again, days after similar moves by the European country apparently helped drive BTC’s price down — and the United States is also moving Bitcoin.
As of Monday morning, wallets known to be associated with the German government have moved around $94.94 million worth of BTC to various destinations, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.
In total, 1,500 BTC were moved. Many of the tokens were spread across accounts on major cryptocurrency exchanges: 200 BTC went to a Bitstamp account, 100 BTC went to a Coinbase account, and another 100 BTC was sent to a Kraken wallet.
The remaining 1,100 BTC were split between two unknown wallets: 500 BTC sent to one and 600 BTC to the other.
This morning’s activity marks the latest crypto-related moves for the German government, which has executed a flurry of token transfers in recent weeks. The German government is one of the largest state holders of crypto in the world, with around $2.8 billion worth of BTC seized from its possession.
Last month, Germany began liquidating that supply, selling more than $195 million in value of BTC in a span of less than 24 hours. Soon, selling pressure pushed The price of BTC has fallen by around 3.5%.
Today’s transfers do not appear to have included any token sales. The price of BTC remained stable this morning, rising 2% to $62,930 in the writing.
The United States, easily the largest state holder of crypto in the world, also made crypto-related moves on Monday. Wallets associated with the U.S. government moved 3,375 ETHvalued at $11.75 million at the time of writing, to an unknown address.
Last week, the US moved 3,940 BTCworth around $248 million to a Coinbase Prime account. According to Arkham, the funds were seized from Banmeet Singh, an Indian drug kingpin who sold narcotics for cryptocurrency on dark web marketplaces.
Singh pleaded guilty earlier this year; as part of his plea deal, he forfeited his cryptocurrency assets to US authorities, in the largest seizure of cryptocurrencies and cash ever by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The US government currently holds more than $13.8 billion worth of cryptocurrencies, according to ArkhamOver 97% of these holdings are in Bitcoin.
Edited by Andre Hayward