Bitcoin continued its decline on August 15, driven by increased selling pressure following a significant BTC transfer by the U.S. government.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed Bitcoin hitting multiday lows, dropping to $57,816.
The sell-off was triggered by the U.S. government’s largest BTC transfer of the year, totaling 10,000 BTC (approximately $581 million), which was sent to the exchange Coinbase, according to crypto intelligence firm Arkham.
This large transfer overshadowed any positive impact from U.S. macroeconomic developments, such as a cooling Consumer Price Index (CPI), which failed to provide a boost to Bitcoin’s price.
The analytics platform Lookonchain highlighted that this wasn’t an isolated event, noting similar market reactions to U.S. government BTC transfers throughout 2024. “The US Government transferred 15,940 $BTC ($966.4M) to Coinbase Prime in three transactions this year,” Lookonchain wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Within three days of the first two transfers, the price of $BTC both dropped by ~5%.”
Axel Adler, a contributor to the onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, suggested that large market players had anticipated the sell-off following the government transfer by “selling the news.” He noted, “Every time Arkham tweets about coin movements, bears instantly start dumping the market. 10K BTC from a US Government doesn’t affect anything, but the mere fact causes such a reaction.”
The sale by the U.S. government is part of a broader trend of nation-states offloading seized BTC holdings, contributing to short-term bearish narratives. As Cointelegraph previously reported, Germany also sold its entire BTC tranche, with Arkham’s tagged wallet now holding just 0.007 BTC ($400). The offloading took place in June and July, and within a week of the final sale, Germany had already missed out on $124 million in potential profits.
“This will go down in history as one of the biggest mistakes a nation could make,” predicted social media commentator and YouTuber Quinten at the time.