Germany Executes 5,000 Bitcoin Sale: Government Reserves Nears Complete Liquidation

It appears the German government’s ultimate goal for its Bitcoin holdings is total liquidation as the authorities have continued its massive BC sell-offs, bringing its overall reserve below 5,000 BTC. These large-scale transactions are part of the government’s robust endeavor to dump the BTC that was originally seized in conjunction with multiple criminal investigations, especially Movie2k.

Over 90% Of Bitcoin Sold From The German Government’s Holdings

In a recent wave of transactions cited by popular intelligence platform Arkham, the German government has carried out another massive Bitcoin sell-off, causing larger speculation about the strategy. Data from the platform shows that the authorities moved over 5,000 BTC, valued at $286 million, to Flow Traders, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp, and the wallet addresses 139Po and bc1qu.

It is worth noting that 4 hours prior to these transactions, the government executed a series of transfers to the address 139Po (either an institutional deposit or over-the-counter service), Cumberland, Coinbase, Bitstamp, and Kraken. Arkham revealed a staggering 3,250 BTC, worth $191 million was transferred to the cryptocurrency exchanges.

On Thursday, the overall amount of Bitcoin reported by the platform to have been sold by the authorities to marker makers and crypto exchanges was approximately 10,627 BTC worth $615 million. As a result, the government reserves now hold about 4,925 BTC, which is just 9.9% of the total Bitcoin that was originally seized from the operator of Movie2k.

These actions from the government ignited a lot of discussion within the crypto space, with several top figures blasting the nation for its ongoing BTC liquidation strategy. Earlier this week, Vivek Sen, a reporter at the Bitcoin Magazine and founder of Bitgrow Lab criticized the authorities calling them idiots.

According to the reporter, BTC stands to be the world’s hardest money, and the state is constantly selling it for a currency that can be manufactured out of thin air. Vivek displeased with the actions went as far as to call the German government officials literal idiots.

BTC Spot ETFs Sees A 5-Day Consecutive Inflows

Although the German government has been selling BTC at a large scale, thereby triggering price declines, the US Bitcoin Spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) have attracted significant inflows lately, recording 5-day straight profits. 

On Thursday, analytics platform Sosovalue reported that the US spot BTC ETFs witnessed a daily inflow of $78 million, marking their fifth consecutive inflow. Data from Sosovalue shows that BlackRock ETF IBIT and Fidelity ETF FBTC recorded a daily inflow of $72 million and $32 million respectively. Meanwhile, the Grayscale ETF GBTC saw another day of outflows, amassing approximately $37 million loss.

With this Thursday’s gains, the net inflow of the BTC spot ETFs from the initial inception day, January 11, until the present now totals $15.5 billion, indicating the growing adoption and interest of the products.

Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com