The German government has moved at least $195 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to exchanges, according to the German government Arkham Intelligence.
Arkham added that the German government moved a total of $600 million worth of BTC on June 19, of which $135 million was sent to four “likely exchange addresses.” Three of the addresses have been confirmed to be ‘service wallets’ on Kraken, Bitstamp and Coinbase.
Some have raised concerns about the impact on the market if Germany continues to sell off its significant stock of digital assets.
According to reports, the Bitcoin transfers were carried out by the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which seized nearly 50,000 BTC from the piracy site Movie2k.to earlier this year. This was the conclusion of a major 2018 seizure of a piracy website run by two people, marking one of the largest crypto confiscations in history.
After the latest transactions, according to Arkham data, the German government owns 47,179 BTC – worth around $3 billion at the time of writing.
Bitcoin ownership between countries
BitcoinTreasuries indicates that Germany has the fourth largest Bitcoin holdings of any country, based on public information.
The top three are the US with $13.9 billion in Bitcoin, China with $12.4 billion and Britain with almost $4 billion. Each government has accumulated its BTC in recent years primarily through seizures by law enforcement.
Ukraine has the fifth largest Bitcoin holdings at 46,351 BTC, much of it acquired from a former government official, Yury Shchigol.
Meanwhile, some countries are accumulating Bitcoin through purchases, investments and donations. El Salvador, the pioneer in adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, currently owns 5,779 BTC – worth approximately $390 million at the time of writing.
The value of El Salvador’s assets has seen substantial gains since the country began its purchases in September 2021. Similarly, Venezuela has also turned to Bitcoin amid the issues of hyperinflation and US sanctions, while the Central African Republic recently announced that it would start using Bitcoin as an alternative. official currency
Meanwhile, Bhutan has been quietly mining Bitcoin since 2019 and currently owns around 621 BTC.