The German Government Still Holds About Half of the Seized Bitcoins

10. Jul 2024 Posted by Bakshi A. on News

Yesterday, the German government made significant bitcoin transfers, amounting to an additional $339.2 million worth of the cryptocurrency. These funds were sent to addresses associated with centralized crypto exchanges and market makers.

Specifically, the government transferred 800 bitcoins (valued at $45.9 million) to the crypto exchange Kraken, 5,000 bitcoins (worth $287.1 million) to an address linked to market maker B2C2 Group, and nearly 107 bitcoins ($6.2 million) to Cumberland DRW, another market maker, as reported by onchain analytics platform Arkham. Additionally, 400 bitcoins ($23 million) were sent to an unlabeled address.

Interestingly, the German government also received 1,692 bitcoins (valued at $96.9 million) back from the crypto exchange Bitstamp on the same day.

These transactions follow the government's ongoing movement of bitcoin to exchanges, which started last month after seizing 50,000 bitcoins from the film piracy site Movie2k in January.

On Monday, government-labeled addresses transferred over 15,000 bitcoins (valued at $866 million) to addresses identified by Arkham as belonging to market makers and exchanges. However, later in the day, 3,623 bitcoins ($203.7 million) were transferred back to the German government from Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Kraken. Considering some bitcoin were sent back to the German government from Coinbase, one can assume they were unsold bitcoin as part of a sale agreement between the crypto exchange and the country.

Currently, the German government still holds 22,846 bitcoins, worth approximately $1.3 billion, according to Arkham's dashboard.

The government's decision to quickly sell its bitcoin holdings has been criticized by Joana Cotar, an independent member of the German Bundestag, who argued that the funds should be retained as a strategic reserve asset.

At present, bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is trading at $57,341, remaining stable over the past 24 hours but showing a 12% decline since the government began moving funds to exchanges on June 18.