The German government recently sold off its entire Bitcoin stash, totaling 50,000 Bitcoin, in just two weeks. This move might seem surprising, but there’s a good reason behind it.
The Movie2k Connection
The Bitcoin belonged to the operator of a notorious movie piracy website called “movie2k”. The German government seized these coins in January 2024, worth over €2.1 billion at the time. But German law requires them to sell off seized assets, especially when there’s a risk of losing value.
Why the Sell-Off?
Bitcoin is known for its wild price swings, so the government was worried about losing money if they held onto the coins. They also had to act quickly because of the ongoing criminal case against the movie2k operator.
A Market-Friendly Approach
The government didn’t just dump all the Bitcoin at once. They broke the sale into smaller chunks over three and a half weeks to avoid crashing the market. They also got a good price for the coins, selling them for a total of €2.63 billion.
Bitcoin Price Unaffected
Interestingly, the Bitcoin price didn’t take a major hit from the German sale. In fact, it actually went up by almost 23% since the government started selling.
So, while the German government’s Bitcoin sale might have seemed like a big deal, it didn’t have a huge impact on the crypto market. And they got a good price for their coins, which will help fund the ongoing criminal case.
