It held 50,000 a month ago, and now it has none. After selling off its Bitcoins massively, Germany finally seems to be running out of BTC to sell: an opportunity to breathe some life into a struggling crypto market.
No more Bitcoin for sale in Germany's coffers
For about a month now, the German government has been in the news in the cryptocurrency sphere by gradually selling off its Bitcoin stash. Just last month, Germany was the 4th country with the largest BTC holdingsthen increased to 50,000 units.
At the current Bitcoin price, this represents almost 3 billion dollars. A very large amount, which the German government was careful not to evacuate quickly. For a month, the latter transmitted its BTC to various addresses, including centralized exchanges (Kraken, Coinbase, Bitstamp) or market makers (Flow Traders, Cumberland), however without issuing the slightest press release on this subject.
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These tens of thousands of Bitcoins came from a seizure carried out in 2020 from the operators of the streaming platform Movie2k, then were transmitted to the Saxony police last January.
So, it only took a few months for the German government to decide to sell these Bitcoins, since he no longer holds any today, according to data collected by Arkham Intelligence :
BREAKING: The German Government is now out of Bitcoin.
The German Government just sent 3846.05 BTC ($223.81M) to Flow Traders and 139Po (likely institutional deposit/OTC service).
The German Government has 0 BTC ($0.00M) remaining. pic.twitter.com/R2vfylR1b2
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) July 12, 2024
Arkham: the tool that makes the blockchain completely transparent
Bundestag member Joana Cotar had opposed the massive BTC sales earlier this month, explaining that it would have been more useful to keep them as a “strategic reserve” for the country:
Instead of holding Bitcoin as a strategic reserve currency, as is already being debated in the United States, our government is selling it on a massive scale.
Since the German government saw its BTC balance drop to $0, individuals have been having fun sending small amounts of Bitcoin to various government wallets. Germany thus holds around $17 worth of BTC at the time of writing..
The end of these operations should in any case allow the cryptocurrency market to breathe a little.Indeed, since the German government started these transactions, the BTC price has continued to fall.
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However, we will have to wait a little longer for the doubts surrounding Mt. Gox to evaporate as well: The aggrieved customers of the former BTC exchange will be gradually reimbursed until next October. This too is a source of concern for investors.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $58,700, and its price is down 14% over the last 30 days.
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Maximilien Prue
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