As a researcher with a background in cryptocurrencies and blockchain analysis, I find this recent trend of large-scale Bitcoin transactions by government entities quite intriguing. The BKA’s sudden transfer of 3,000 bitcoins, valued at approximately $172 million, has been a topic of interest for many in the community.


Expert: The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) transferred approximately $172 million in bitcoin, equal to 3,000 coins, on a Thursday transaction. According to on-chain analysis, around $75 million worth of bitcoins went to centralized exchanges Kraken, Bitstamp, and Coinbase. The remaining $97 million is now stored in an unidentified Bitcoin wallet.

PeckShieldAlert announced via a tweet that the Bitcoin address bc1qq0…738z, believed to be linked to the German government, moved approximately 1.3K $BTC, equivalent to around $75 million, to various cryptocurrency exchanges (Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp).

A wallet holding approximately 3,000 more bitcoins has been recently liquidated, in addition to the previous disposal of about 3,000 bitcoins from this same wallet within recent weeks. The Dutch authorities (BKA) amassed around 50,000 bitcoins by confiscating assets linked to a movie piracy website named Movie2K. Their plan is to dispose of all these acquired digital assets by selling them off.

As a crypto investor, I’ve noticed that whenever the BKA (Federal Criminal Police Office in Germany) moves its bitcoin assets, the market price takes a hit. Their selling activity has been a cause for concern since June, adding selling pressure to an already tense market. This happens when large wallets, holding over 1,000 bitcoins each, decide to sell some of their holdings. These sell-offs often trigger other investors to follow suit and liquidate their positions as well, leading to a sharp decline in the price of bitcoin.

Despite this, the German government isn’t the only entity transferring substantial amounts of bitcoin. On Thursday, the US government moved approximately $13.7 million worth of bitcoins it had seized. PeckShieldAlert reported on X: “#PeckShieldAlert237 A wallet connected to US Government law enforcement seizures transferred ~$13.7m in BTC to the following address: bc1qvc…n257.”

The test transactions conducted by Mt. Gox’s wallet, transferring $25 to three different wallets, significantly contributed to the dip in bitcoin’s price. These transactions came at a critical time when bitcoin was experiencing its lowest points since two months earlier, during a period of upward momentum.

Image by Jörn Heller from Pixabay

Read More

2024-07-05 22:21