Germany and the US seem to be competing over who can scare bitcoin markets more.
Addresses linked to German and US governments have recently sent $737.6 million in bitcoin to exchanges including Coinbase, Bitstamp and Kraken, as well as some to OTC desk operator-slash-market maker Flow Traders.
Germany makes up about three-quarters of that total, with its deposits spread across 30 different transactions — usually in the morning around 9 am local time.
According to Arkham Intelligence, it is unclear if all of the bitcoins were actually sold. A portion was returned to their original addresses.
Local authorities have previously confiscated bitcoin through various criminal cases, such as the pirate portal Movie2k.
Germany appears to have sent 7,828 BTC via transfers in the past two week as part of its liquidation efforts.
This bitcoin was valued at $496.4 million at each of the transaction times. That implies an average price $63,400. Bitcoin is currently trading at $60,200. However, it’s difficult to establish a causal relationship between Germany’s transfers and the falling price.
In the US, bitcoin was sold at auction by the Feds. Coinbase now sells it.
On June 26, at 11am ET, the US sent 3,940 BTC to Coinbase Prime. The bitcoin once owned by drug dealer Banmeet Singh had a value of $241.22million at the time. Today, the same amount would be worth $237.35million.
It’s difficult to determine the exact value of what the US Government has sold over the years, aside from the bitcoins that were sold in previous years at auction.
Some transactions are evident, such as the Coinbase deposit. Other transactions are only sent to exchanges through multiple addresses. For the purposes of this analysis, crypto sent to a middle address and then forwarded to an Exchange also counts towards the totals.
It appears that the US government has either liquidated, or is moving to liquidate, almost $590,000,000 in bitcoin (valued as of the transfer) since November 2020. It is approximately 20% more than Germany recently.
The data suggest that:
- The US sold 15903 BTC in the US for an average price of approximately $37,000 since 2020.
- The US could have made $958.7 Million if it had kept all the bitcoins.
- US sales of auctions in the last decade have missed billions, including $370 Million.
The world governments that are moving their bitcoins tend to create a lot more noise. Onchain data shows that the US is selling seized ETH as long as BTC.
Since September 2020, US government addresses have sent 49.1 million dollars in ETH through Coinbase and Kraken. Additional $2.6M in DAI as well as a small amount USDC were also sent to a Kraken-forwarding address.
The US government liquidated 108.673 ETH at an average price $452 ($3,300 today). Had it held all that and sold today, it would’ve scored over $358 million — missing out on nearly $310 million.
The ETH was taken from wallets that were designated for seizures in cases involving Centra Tech, a defunct crypto-debit card ploy, and Gary Harmon who, ironically stole bitcoin seized from the US government among others.
The US and Germany, when combined, have sent close to $1.14 Billion in bitcoins, ethers and stablecoins seized to exchanges and trading platforms during the last four years.
The US has around $13.3 billion of crypto, mostly Bitcoin, plus $300 million each in ether and Tether. Germany, on the other hand, continues to hold 43 549 BTC ($2.6 Billion).
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