Since February 2024, a mysterious wallet labeled “German Government (BKA)” by the on-chain analysis company Arkham Intelligence has held no less than 50,000 Bitcoin. In recent days, a few thousand of these BTCs have started moving, attracting the attention of the community.
The German dragon watches over its precious Bitcoin treasure
Currently, Germany is among the largest Bitcoin holders in the world with a reserve of around 50,000 BTCwhich places it in 4th position behind the United States and China.
Figure 1 – Ranking of countries holding the most Bitcoin
At the origin of this substantial loot is the illegal streaming platform Movie2k. The site's operators are said to have invested heavily in Bitcoin starting in 2013, using revenue from advertisements and subscriptions.
But in 2020, German authorities intervened by closing the website and arresting several suspects. In conjunction with the tax authorities and the prosecutor, the Saxony criminal police finalized this seizure in 2024, thus pocketing nearly 50,000 BTC.
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It is quite common for governments to seize cryptocurrencies as part of investigations into criminal networks. The government in question can subsequently use this seizure to transform these digital assets into commodity currencies, to replenish public accounts for example.
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In the matrix: on-chain analysis
However, this Wednesday, June 19, a transfer of 6,500 BTC captivated the attention of the entire crypto community towards the German government.
Figure 2 – Timeline of Bitcoin transfers from the German government
This entire transfer was made to a new public address, still unknown to the public (step 1). An additional 2,359 BTC went to addresses affiliated with the German government (step 2).
Subsequently, these 2,500 Bitcoins were redistributed to several exchanges including Kraken, Bitstamp and Coinbase, but also to an unknown address (step 3).
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Figure 3 – Graphical representation of all transfers made since the Bitcoins were seized
In short, the main wallet still holds 47,179 Bitcoins, worth over $3 billion at the time of writing these lines. FinalCurrently, only 1,700 BTC were sent to cryptocurrency exchanges, an amount that does not appear to have been converted into traditional currencies at this time.
Despite the agitation that this may have caused in the crypto sphere, there is no not really had a real impact on the price of Bitcoin. We have nevertheless noted strong selling pressure among long-term BTC holders over the last 2 weeks.
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Source : Arkham Intelligence
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A lifelong cyber enthusiast, I have nurtured my curiosity and passion over time… should it have been the other way around? A convinced maximalist, I could have been part of the cypherpunks if I had been born a few years earlier. Convinced that information and knowledge are the ultimate weapons of freedom, I brandish my pen like a sword, defending this noble cause with fervor.
