The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) transferred 900 Bitcoin to Kraken, Coinbase and an untagged wallet.
A wallet associated with the BKA sent $24 million in bitcoin (BTC) in two transactions to the Kraken and Coinbase cryptocurrency exchanges during the morning hours in Europe, as reported by Arkham data. The total amount of Bitcoin transferred was 400 BTC.
An additional 500 BTC ($30.4 million) was moved to an untagged address labeled “139Po.”
These transfers are in addition to $130 million in BTC sent to exchanges on June 19 and $65 million in BTC sent on June 20.
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) June 25, 2024UPDATE: German Government selling additional $24M BTC
In the past 2 hours the German Government has moved 400 BTC to exchange deposits at Kraken and Coinbase.
They have also moved 500 BTC to address 139Po. We have yet to see where these funds are moved. pic.twitter.com/D6QCUv9Jgx
Selling pressure
The authorities seized the BTC from the operators of the film piracy website Movie2k.to. The Bitcoin, worth over $2 billion at the time, was obtained from nearly 50,000 BTC. The suspects transferred it to the BKA in mid-January in a ‘voluntary transfer.’
There is speculation surrounding this BTC transfer, with some suggesting that the owner of the German wallet may be looking to sell their BTC. Others believe it could be a strategy to diversify their assets across various exchanges.
Germany’s current ownership of 46,359 BTC, which is worth approximately $2.8 billion at current prices, positions it as one of the largest known nation-state holders of Bitcoin, ranked behind the United States, China, and the UK.
These transactions followed significant movements by the BKA last week, with $130 million sent to exchanges on June 19 and $65 million on June 20.