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German government liquidates Bitcoin confiscated funds
Seizure of assets by governments around the world poses a hidden danger of sell-offs
According to Cointelegraph, the cryptocurrency wallet identified as “German government (BKA)” by blockchain intelligence firm Arkham transferred Bitcoin for the first time on June 19th, leading many to believe that the German government may be selling its confiscated Bitcoin.
It is understood that these Bitcoin were seized by the German police in a raid in January this year from a pirate movie group, with a total of 50,000 coins, the largest amount of cryptocurrency assets confiscated in Germany to date. According to Arkham’s data, the German government cryptocurrency wallet that holds these ill-gotten gains transferred nearly 6,500 Bitcoin for the first time on June 19th.
On June 19th, the German government-related wallets conducted four transactions, with one transaction worth over $425 million and 6,500 BTC flowing out to the wallet address “bc1q0unygz3ddt8x0v33s6ztxkrnw0s0tl7zk4yxwd”, and another transaction worth $154 million transferred to the German government’s own address.
The wallet address that received the 6,500 Bitcoin then transferred 2,500 Bitcoin to another wallet address “bc1qq0l4jgg9rcm3puhhfwaz4c9t8hdee8hfz6738z”. Subsequently, the funds received by this wallet address were split into four outgoing transactions. Two of these transactions went to the cryptocurrency exchanges Kraken and Bitstamp, while the other two transactions were transferred to unmarked private addresses.
The wallet identified by the German government currently holds 43,359 Bitcoin, worth $2.83 billion.
The amount of Bitcoin confiscated by governments worldwide is a potential hidden danger in the cryptocurrency market. In addition to the German government, the US government has also seized a large amount of Bitcoin from cases such as the Bitfinex hack and Silk Road. According to data from bitcointreasuries, the US government currently holds a total of about 207,000 Bitcoin, with a total value of approximately $13.5 billion.
