German bitcoin sell-off drives market to lowest point since 2024
Germans who acquired 50,000 bitcoins in January have started selling the cryptocurrency. This situation worries investors, as bitcoin has reached its lowest price since February 2024 due to the sell-off, reports banker.pl.
11:33 AM EDT, July 9, 2024
According to bankier.pl, the bitcoins came into the possession of the German government during a police operation in Saxony in January. During this operation, the authorities seized approximately 50 thousand bitcoins, which were worth around 2.2 billion dollars at that time. The Saxon Police emphasized that this is the largest seizure of bitcoins by law enforcement in Germany. The cryptocurrency was confiscated from the operators of the Movie2k.to the website, which had been involved in film piracy since 2013.
The seized cryptocurrencies were transferred to a wallet managed by the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA) and gradually sold over the past few weeks, reports the portal. Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analysis company, stated that in June alone, the BKA sold 900 bitcoins for around 52 million dollars and 5,739 bitcoins, or approximately 327 million dollars, in July.
The price of the cryptocurrency drastically drops
A significant sell-off of bitcoins by Germany, combined with the pressure resulting from the start of bitcoin payouts for creditors of the bankrupt Mt. Gox exchange, has hurt the value of the cryptocurrency. The price fell below 55,000 dollars, reaching the lowest since February 2024. Data from CoinGeco showed that in one day, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies decreased by more than 170 billion dollars. Over the past 12 months, the price of Bitcoin has been steadily rising, recording an annual increase of 89 percent.
Currently, the BKA wallet holds approximately 32,488 bitcoins, which, at current prices, translates to around 1.9 billion dollars. However, not all members of the German government are satisfied with this development.
Bundestag member Joana Cotar believes the government should reserve cryptocurrency as a strategic currency. Cotar announced that she would convince Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Minister of Finance, and the Prime Minister of Saxony to stop further bitcoin sales, reports banker.pl.
