The German Federal Criminal Police Office, also known as the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), recently made a significant move involving Bitcoin. They transferred a total of 900 BTC on Tuesday, with 400 BTC being sold to both Coinbase and Kraken. Each exchange received 200 BTC from the transaction. Analysis of the blockchain shows that the assets were moved in three separate transactions from a wallet labeled German Government (BKA).
Interestingly, while two of the transactions involved sending assets to exchanges for liquidation, the third transaction transferred 500 BTC to a wallet labeled ‘139Po.’ The purpose of this transfer and the connection the BKA has with this wallet are currently unknown. This is not the first time the BKA has moved value to this particular wallet. In the past, they have sent larger sums, such as 500 BTC on June 19 and 800 BTC the following day. It appears that the BKA still has a significant amount of BTC left to move and sell, and it will be interesting to see where these funds end up in the coming days.
The wallet ‘139Po’ still holds around 46,359 BTC, and the flow of funds from this wallet has raised concerns about putting pressure on the price of Bitcoin. A large sell-off from this wallet could potentially cause the price of BTC to drop further as market participants closely monitor its activity.
In a related development, the BKA had previously seized 50,000 BTC from Movie2k, a piracy website, back in 2013. These assets are now being sold off. Additionally, news has emerged that Mt Gox will be returning creditor funds in approximately a week, including around 140,000 BTC. The return of these funds to circulation could potentially exert further downward pressure on the price of BTC. On Tuesday, BTC dipped below $60,000 as a result of the BKA’s transactions and the news surrounding Mt Gox.
Despite these developments, analyst Willy Woo remains optimistic about the long-term outlook for BTC. He believes that the current price correction may continue for another one to four weeks before the price starts to rise again. According to him, “Eyeballing this model… probably 1-4 weeks more of cooling down before #Bitcoin price action is sufficiently boring.”
Overall, the recent movements of the German Government with Bitcoin, as well as the upcoming return of creditor funds from Mt Gox, are significant events that could have implications for the price of BTC in the near future. Investors and market participants will be closely monitoring these developments to gauge the potential impact on the overall market.