German government's bitcoin selloff may have come to end as wallet emptied

The Block2024/07/12 20:37

By:The Block

Quick Take Germany’s crypto wallet reached a balance of zero on Friday, as the government appears to have transferred all of its bitcoin to different exchanges and market makers. Arkham Intelligence has been closely tracking the European nation’s crypto transfers as the German government appeared to follow through with plans to offload 50,000 bitcoins seized from the now-defunct film piracy website Movie2K.

For several days Germany has been transferring thousands of bitcoin to different exchanges and market makers in an apparent effort to sell the crypto it seized in January.

The European nation's wallet reached a zero balance on Friday afternoon, according to data compiled by Arkham Intelligence, which posted to X that Germany had sent "3846.05 BTC +0.023% ($223.81 million) to Kraken."

Earlier Friday, the German wallet transferred bitcoins to wallets linked to Bitstamp, Coinbase, Kraken, B2C2 Group, Cumberland DRW and an unlabeled OTC service address, also according to Arkham Intelligence, an on-chain analytics firm.

The days of bitcoin transfers appear related to the German government's plan to sell the 50,000 bitcoins it confiscated earlier this year from the now-defunct film piracy website Movie2K. When Germany seized the 50,000 bitcoins the value was estimated at over $2 billion.

Last month, Germany began executing its series of staggered bitcoin transfers to various exchanges. At least one German lawmaker disagreed with the plan to sell the confiscated bitcoin.

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