Markets
US, Germany Move Over $100M in Bitcoin as Market Braces for Impact
The German government is moving huge sums of money Bitcoin once again, just days after similar moves by the European nation had apparently contributed to the drop in the price of BTC, and the United States is also moving Bitcoin.
On Monday morning, wallets known to be associated with the German government moved approximately $94.94 million in BTC to various destinations, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.
In total, 1,500 BTC were moved. Many of the tokens were distributed to accounts at major cryptocurrency exchanges: 200 BTC went to a Bitstamp account, 100 BTC to a Coinbase account, and another 100 BTC was sent to a Kraken wallet.
The remaining 1,100 BTC were split between two unknown wallets: 500 BTC were sent to one and 600 BTC to the other.
This morning’s activity marks the latest crypto-related movements for the German government, which has carried out a flurry of token transfers in recent weeks. The German government is one of the world’s largest state holders of cryptocurrency, with approximately $2.8 billion in BTC seized from its possession.
Last month, Germany began liquidating that supply, selling more than Value of $195 million of BTC in a time frame of less than 24 hours. In a short time, the selling pressure pushed The price of BTC dropped by around 3.5%.
Today’s transfers do not appear to have included any token sales. BTC price remained stable this morning, up a strong 2% at $62,930 in writing.
The United States, which is arguably the world’s largest cryptocurrency holder, also made crypto-related moves on Monday. Wallets associated with the U.S. government moved 3,375 ETHworth $11.75 million at the time of writing, at an unknown address.
Last week, the United States moved 3,940 BTCworth approximately $248 million, on a Coinbase Prime account. According to Arkham, the funds were seized from Banmeet Singh, an Indian drug lord who was trading narcotics for cryptocurrency on dark web markets.
Singh pleaded guilty earlier this year; as part of his plea deal, he turned over his cryptocurrency holdings to U.S. authorities, in the largest cryptocurrency and cash seizure ever by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
According to Bloomberg, the U.S. government currently holds more than $13.8 billion in cryptocurrencies. The ArkhamOver 97% of these holdings are in Bitcoin.