The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) recently made a significant transfer of 3,000 bitcoins, equivalent to $172 million. Out of this amount, 1,300 bitcoins were sent to centralized exchanges such as Kraken, Bitstamp, and Coinbase, while the rest went to an unknown Bitcoin wallet. This move resulted in around $75 million being sent to the centralized exchanges and $97 million to the unknown address.
PeckShieldAlert, a monitoring service, informed its followers about the BKA’s transfers to the exchanges, highlighting the movement of funds. This transfer is part of a series of actions taken by the BKA, which has been liquidating a portion of the 50,000 bitcoins it accumulated from seizing assets from Movie2K, a movie piracy site. The agency plans to sell off all the assets it holds.
The timing of the transfer coincided with a drop in bitcoin’s price to below $57,000. The selling activity by the BKA, as well as other government entities like the US government, has added selling pressure to the market. The US government also made a significant transfer of bitcoins collected through seizures, amounting to about $13.7 million. These movements have contributed to the recent dip in bitcoin’s price.
Additionally, Mt. Gox’s wallet conducted test transactions, moving a small amount of $25 to three wallets. While seemingly insignificant, these transactions have had an impact on bitcoin’s price, pushing it down to levels last seen two months ago.
Overall, the recent transfers by government agencies and other entities have influenced the cryptocurrency market and added to the selling pressure on bitcoin. As these large amounts of bitcoins are moved around, investors and traders are closely monitoring the market for any further developments that could affect prices.