Bitcoin’s market price remained stable as Germany’s government reduced its BTC holdings from over 50,000 coins to under 23,000 tokens. On-chain insight provider Arkham Intelligence reported that Germany’s government transferred 6,306.9 Bitcoin (BTC), valued at over $362 million, to several entities, including the centralized exchange Kraken, on Tuesday. Kraken received 800 BTC worth $45.9 million, while market makers B2C2 Group and Cumberland DRW were sent $287.1 million and $6.2 million in Bitcoin, respectively. Another address, marked as “unlabeled” and likely an OTC desk, received 400 BTC or around $24 million in crypto. Despite Germany’s BTC liquidations earlier in the week and last week typically causing price declines, Bitcoin remained unfazed this time, maintaining its level above $57,000 at press time.
German authorities began sending BTC to exchanges and trading venues last week after seizing about 50,000 tokens from the illegal film site Movie2k in January. The largest single-day transfers occurred on Monday when Germany moved 16,000 Bitcoin, equivalent to $866 million, to addresses identified as exchanges and other institutional counterparties. Interestingly, platforms such as Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Kraken have returned millions in BTC to German state-controlled wallets, with exchanges reportedly sending over $300 million in BTC back to Germany. The prevailing theory behind these returns is that the platforms could not liquidate the crypto within agreed price ranges. Following the latest transfer on Tuesday, Arkham noted that Germany still holds around 22,847 BTC worth over $1.3 billion.
