German government moves additional $94 million worth of bitcoin to exchanges

Quick Take

  • The U.S. and German governments both made a large amount of crypto transactions today following similar moves last week.
  • The transactions in recent weeks have been widely interpreted as signals that the governments intend to sell their crypto assets.

The German and U.S. governments appear to have moved additional bitcoin and ether today, further signaling their potential intention to sell the assets, according to data from blockchain analytics Arkham.

The German government moved a total of 1,500 bitcoin ($94 million) to a few addresses, including those at Coinbase, Kraken and Bitstamp, according to data from Arkham. The data showed that the German authorities sent 600 BTC and 500 BTC to an unknown address in two transactions, while moving 200 BTC to an address at Bitstamp, 100 BTC to a Coinbase address and 100 BTC to a Kraken address.

Wallets labeled as belonging to the U.S. government also sent 3,375 ether, or about $11.75 million, to an unknown address today from an address holding assets seized from Estonian entrepreneurs Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, Arkham data showed.

The latest crypto transactions made by the U.S. and German authorities came after both governments made similar moves last week.

Currently, the wallets thought to be associated with the U.S. government hold about 213,534 bitcoin, worth $13.42 billion, and possess about 50,524 ether, worth approximately $175.9 million, among other crypto assets, according to Arkham.

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The German government currently holds 44,692 bitcoin, worth about $2.81 billion, the data showed.

The two countries are among the largest known state holders of bitcoin. The U.S. currently tops the chart, followed by China, the UK, Germany and Ukraine, according to Bitcoin Treasuries.

The price of bitcoin climbed 2.19% over the past 24 hours to around $62,789 at the time of publication, while ether gained 2.71% to change hands at $3,479, according to The Block’s price page.


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About Author

Timmy Shen is an Asia editor for The Block. Previously, he wrote about crypto and Web3 for Forkast.News from Taiwan after spending more than three years in Beijing covering finance, entertainment business and current affairs at Caixin Global and Chinese tech at TechNode. His China-related reporting has also appeared in The Guardian. When he's not chasing headlines, you'll find him savoring hot pot and shabu shabu in a Taipei local haunt. Timmy holds an MS degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Send tips to [email protected] or get in touch on X/Telegram @timmyhmshen.

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