German Government Moves Part of $2.8 Billion Bitcoin Cache to Kraken and Coinbase

The German government has been moving substantial amounts of Bitcoin to crypto exchanges as BTC attempts to recover from the $60,000 level.

According to Arkham, a blockchain de-anonymizing platform, the German government has moved 900 BTC in the last 24 hours. Specifically, the government sent 200 BTC to Kraken and another 200 BTC to Coinbase. Additionally, 500 BTC were transferred to an address starting with “139PoPE,” which could be another exchange wallet but remains unidentified.

Earlier this month, Arkham reported that over a two-day period, the German government transferred over $195 million worth of Bitcoin to six crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp. Arkham stated, “German Government Still Selling BTC > $195 million so far. In the past two hours, the German government sent $65 million in BTC to two likely exchange deposits including Coinbase. The German government moved $600M BTC yesterday, sending $130 million BTC to four likely exchange deposits including Kraken and Bitstamp.”

Context Behind the Bitcoin Movements

The BTC being sold by the German government was seized during investigations into Movie2k.to, an illegal streaming site accused of distributing over 880,000 pirated films between 2008 and 2013. The Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office revealed that the site’s operators had purchased Bitcoin using proceeds from their illegal activities.

This Bitcoin seizure is the largest of its kind in Germany. Authorities confiscated nearly 50,000 BTC, valued at $2.17 billion at the time of seizure.