The bitcoins came into the possession of the German government as a result of an action taken by the Saxon police in January. The services seized nearly 50,000 bitcoins, which were worth about $2.2 billion at the time. The Saxon police boasted at the time that it was “the largest bitcoin seizure by law enforcement agencies in Germany to date,” and the cryptocurrency was seized from the operators of Movie2k.to, a movie piracy website that had been operating since 2013.
The seized cryptocurrencies were transferred to a wallet run by Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and sold successively over the past few weeks. In June alone, the BKA sold 900 bitcoins (worth about $52 million), and (so far) in July another 5,739 bitcoins, according to Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics firm.
The combination of the massive sell-off in Germany and the pressure caused by the start of Bitcoin payments to creditors of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, has had a negative impact on the value of the popular currency. The price has fallen dramatically to below $55,000, which means the lowest level since February 2024. According to CoinGeco data, the total value of the entire cryptocurrency market has fallen by more than $170 billion in 24 hours. It is worth noting that over the past 12 months, the price of Bitcoin has been gradually rising, reaching a year-over-year increase of 89%.
Should Germany Sell Its Bitcoin?
The BKA currently holds around 32,488 Bitcoin in its wallet, which translates to around $1.9 billion at current prices. However, not all members of the German government are happy with these transactions. According to Bundestag member Johanna Cotar, the government should keep the cryptocurrency as a “strategic currency reserve.”
Kotar announced that she will convince Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the finance minister and prime minister of the state of Saxony, to sell more bitcoins.
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