Bitcoin retreats as German government selling intensifies

• Bitcoin (BTC) price fell to under $56,000 as the German government sold more BTC
• On-chain data shows Germany sent more than 16,000 BTC to exchanges on Monday – the largest transfers in a single day.

Bitcoin price fell below $56,000 again on Monday, dropping by about 2% at the time of writing as Germany took its BTC selling spree to a new level.

Per on-chain data tracking the Bitcoin held by the German government, Monday saw more than 16,000 BTC sent to crypto exchanges – the largest such dump by the government-controlled wallet in a single day.

The selling intensified amid transfers of 2,700 BTC, 5,200 BTC and 8,100 BTC in quick succession over a two hour period.  

“The German Government sent another 5200 BTC ($297.3M) to Kraken, Bitstamp, Coinbase and 139Po right after we posted this tweet. That makes this the biggest day for them so far – over 16,000 BTC in total,” the Arkham team posted on X.

Bitcoin price dips amid sell-off

Bitcoin reaction to the selling, which has persisted over the last few weeks, saw Bitcoin price dip from intraday highs of $57,877 to around $55,130.

Germany seized 50,000 bitcoin from Movie2k earlier this year. Over the last few days, it has accelerated its selling to see the total holdings reduce rapidly to 23,787 BTC at the time of writing. The bitcoin’s value reached over $3.6 billion when BTC price skyrocketed to it’s all-time high in March.

However, with more than half sold and BTC price hovering around $55.8k, the total value of the BTC has dropped to $1.34 billion.

Bitcoin price has declined more than 10% in the past week.