It’s frightening cryptocurrency investors, The world’s largest cryptocurrency has been under selling pressure for weeks. As the result of Germany’s government selling Bitcoin worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Bitcoin’s price has dropped sharply in sync with these sales; on Friday, it reached its lowest point since February 2024.
About 50K Bitcoins, valued at approximately $2.2 billion. It was confiscated by authorities in the German state of Saxony in the east during mid-January.
Despite a rush of transactions in recent weeks. The German Federal Criminal Police Office still has over 32,488 bitcoins, worth nearly $1.9 billion in current currency.
The German government has been selling Bitcoin worth hundreds of millions of euros for weeks. It is primarily to blame for the enormous sell-off.
The German government started selling Bitcoin in the last month using a wallet run by the Bundeskriminalamt, or BKA. This is the nation’s Federal Criminal Police Office.
It’s frightening cryptocurrency investors for private website
From a huge haul taken from a now-defunct movie pirate website. The BKA sold 900 bitcoins in June, valued at almost $52 million as of Monday. According to on-chain data recorded by blockchain monitoring firm Arkham Intelligence.
The government auctioned roughly $172 million worth of new bitcoins last week. Then, on Monday, 2,739 more bitcoins, valued at $155 million, were sold by German police.
The government has been transferring its cryptocurrency holdings to Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Kraken exchanges.
When CNBC called the German government on Monday, a representative was not immediately available for comment.
For more information: Price Analysis Bitcoin, Ether, DOGE, TONNES, Etc
Reaction of Bitcoin prices
These sales have resulted in a sharp decline in the price of bitcoin. According to CoinGecko data, the price of bitcoin fell below $55,000 on Friday, reaching its lowest point since February 2024.
According to CoinGecko’s data, at one point throughout the day, the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrency markets had dropped by more than $170 billion in a single day.
It’s frightening cryptocurrency investors, The sales of Bitcoin in Germany are not the only issue. The distribution of digital currency valued at billions of dollars to creditors by the defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. Which filed for bankruptcy in 2014, has also put pressure on the cryptocurrency.
Nobuaki Kobayashi, the trustee for the Mt. Gox bankruptcy estate, announced on Friday that the estate had started paying some of its creditors back in bitcoin and bitcoin cash via several approved cryptocurrency exchanges.
A large sum of money is hundreds of millions of dollars. However, when considering the total amount of tokens issued by Bitcoin, it’s minuscule.
Data from CoinGecko indicates that there are currently 19.7 million bitcoins in use, valued at $1.1 trillion.
But for investors, it’s all about how those transactions are affecting the overall sentiment of the market.
Although “relatively minor,” the bitcoin sales have “affected market sentiment,” according to James Butterfill, head of research at cryptocurrency asset manager CoinShares, who spoke with CNBC.
Even after a full year, the price of bitcoin has increased by a solid 89%. Data from CoinGecko indicates that there are currently 19.7 million bitcoins in use, valued at $1.1 trillion.
But for investors, it’s all about how those transactions are affecting the overall sentiment of the market.
Although “relatively minor,” the bitcoin sales have “affected market sentiment,” according to James Butterfill, head of research at cryptocurrency asset manager CoinShares, who spoke with CNBC.
Even after a full year, the price of bitcoin has increased by a solid 89%.
Why Germany own $2 billion worth of bitcoin
In January, the authorities in the German state of Saxony, located in the east, announced that they had seized approximately 50,000 bitcoins, which were worth about $2.2 billion at the time.
“The most extensive seizure of Bitcoins by law enforcement authorities in the Federal Republic of Germany to date,” according to Saxony police, was the description of the haul.
According to Arkham Intelligence, which tracks the German the owners of the 2013 movie pirate website Movie2k sent the money to a Bitcoin wallet held by the German Federal Criminal Police Office. ernment’s Bitcoin wallet, the tokens began moving in 2013 when they were first taken.
Currently, the BKA in Germany has about 32,488 bitcoins. The government’s holdings are at about $1.9 billion at the present price.
However, not everyone agrees with Germany’s choice to liquidate its bitcoin holdings. But, It’s frightening cryptocurrency investors.
A member of the German parliament known as the Bundestag, Joana Cotar stated last month on X that the government must keep Bitcoin as a “strategic reserve currency” instead of selling it.
Cotar stated that she has written to Michael Kretschmer, the president of Saxony, Christian Lindner, the finance minister, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to inform them that selling bitcoin “is not only not sensible, but counterproductive.”
She claimed that she had invited German officials to attend a talk by well-known Bitcoin influencer Samson Mow on October 17 at the Paul-Lobe-Haus in Berlin.
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