The German government’s Bitcoin wallet has decreased to 9,094 Bitcoin, only 18% of its original amount, following a series of transfers to crypto exchanges on July 11.
The wallet, holding Bitcoin seized from a film pirating website crackdown in January, has been actively transferring out billions in Bitcoin since June 19, with increased activity starting in July.
On July 11, the wallet’s balance dipped below 5,000 BTC after sending 10,620 BTC, valued at approximately $615 million, to cryptocurrency trading platforms such as Coinbase, Bitstamp, Kraken, Flow Traders, and two anonymous addresses, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham.
However, some of these funds were soon transferred back to the German government wallet, bringing its Bitcoin holdings back above 9,000 BTC.
Currently, the German government holds just 18% of the 49,857 Bitcoin it seized from the film piracy website Movie2k in January.
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Arkham suspects that the two anonymous addresses ending in “139Po” and “bc1qu” are likely owned by institutional deposit or over-the-counter trading service providers, although this has not been confirmed.
This extensive sell-off has not been well-received by German lawmaker and Bitcoin activist Joana Cotar, who argued earlier in July that Bitcoin could have been adopted as a “strategic reserve currency” to protect against risks in the traditional financial system.
An Ordinals user expressed their frustration through an inscription, translating to “Taxes are robbery.”
The sell-off, coupled with concerns that Mt. Gox has begun distributing over $8 billion of Bitcoin to its creditors, has significantly contributed to a BTC price slump in recent weeks.
These bearish events have pushed the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which tracks market sentiment, into the “Extreme Fear” zone for the first time since January 2023.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $56,870, down 1.8% over the last 24 hours and 15.1% over the last month.
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