By
Chimamanda U. Martha
June 28th, 2024
The German government has dumped 400 Bitcoins (BTC) on Kraken and Coinbase, an action that suggests investors should brace for impact. The 400 BTC, worth $24.4 million based on the cryptocurrency’s current price, were deposited at 15:38 UTC+8.
As per the data by blockchain analysis platform Arkham Intelligence, the 400 BTC deposit comes after the German authorities offloaded over 1,700 BTC worth $110 million on exchanges Kraken, Coinbase, and Bitstamp. Currently, the government holds $2.8 billion in Bitcoin, which includes $1.1 billion in unrealized profit.
Notably, Bitcoin whale activities have surged significantly in the past few days after weeks of stagnant price action. It seems that many holders are capitalizing on the gains provided by the digital asset since the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January.
Out of the 400 BTC, 200 coins were deposited on Kraken and the other half on Coinbase. The huge sell-off initiated by the German government, followed by two consecutive weeks of outflows from the spot BTC ETFs, contributed to the fall in the price of Bitcoin, which is currently testing the $60,000 price level.
Arkham data shows that a week ago, on June 18th, the German government had 49.86K BTC worth $3.32 billion at $66,642 per BTC. However, as of June 25th, the authorities have 47.18K BTC worth $2.98 billion at $63,190 per Bitcoin. This marks a net change of $341.46 million in the holdings of the government.
According to the data from Farside Investors, the German government’s sell-off coincides with outflows worth $174.5 million from the spot BTC ETF on June 24th. While Grayscale’s GBTC, Fidelity’s FBTC, and Franklin Templeton’s EZBC had $90.4 million, $35.2 million, and $20.9 million worth of outflows, respectively, BlackRock’s IBIT stayed neutral at 0.
On the other hand, crypto trader “Ash Crypto” pointed out in a post on social media platform X that a Bitcoin whale bought BTC worth $961 million, paying just around $3 in fees. The activity suggests that investors have begun taking advantage of the recent Bitcoin price crash.
Recent Bitcoin Crash
As per CoinMarketCap, the price of Bitcoin at the time of writing stands at $61,267, up 0.17% in the past 24 hours. The market capitalization of the cryptocurrency stands at $1.2 trillion, while the trading volume of the digital asset rose by 59.46%, currently valued at $38.319 billion. BTC is down 6.43% in seven days, followed by an 11.71% drop in the last 30 days.
Bitcoin is also down by around 16.89% from its all-time high of $73,750 witnessed earlier this year in March. The Mt. Gox repayments, followed by the moving of thousands of BTC by the German government, have contributed to the recent downfall of the world’s largest cryptocurrency.