Bitcoin prices have plunged precipitously over the past few hours as the German government appears to be preparing to offload more of the asset.
On July 4, blockchain security platform PeckShield reported that wallets linked to the German government were moving BTC.
Around 1,300 coins worth roughly $75 million were transferred from these associated wallets to centralized exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp, it noted.
It is not the first transfer this week; on July 2, the wallet associated with the German government transferred 832.7 BTC in four transactions.
German Govt Selling Pressure
The findings were backed up by crypto intelligence platform Arkham, which reported that a similar amount was sent to the three exchanges.
The entity transferred 500 BTC to Bitstamp, 400 coins to Coinbase, and 400 to Kraken. The undetermined wallet ‘139Po’ received a large transfer of 1,700 BTC worth $98.7 million also.
According to Arkham, the entity labeled ‘German Government (BKA)’ still contains around $2.3 billion worth of Bitcoin.
The BKA-labelled wallet, which holds 40,359 BTC, could add more selling pressure to Bitcoin’s already declining price.
The German government has now sent more than $300 million worth of BTC to crypto exchange addresses and the ‘139Po’ address.
The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA)-labeled wallet first sparked suspicions of BTC selling on June 19, when it transferred 6,500 coins worth more than $425 million at the time.
The assets were seized in 2013 when the BKA confiscated almost 50,000 BTC, which was valued at over $2 billion at the time, from the operators of Movie2k.to, a popular film piracy website.
Germany is not the only country to move and potentially liquidate Bitcoin. In late June, the U.S. government transferred $240 million worth of Bitcoin linked to Silk Road to a Coinbase Prime address.
The United States is the largest governmental holder of BTC with 213,246 coins followed by China which has 190,000 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.
BTC Dumps 5.5%
The move has added to the selling pressure, with BTC falling 5.5% over the past few hours to bottom out at $57,071, according to CoinGecko.
In addition to the German government transactions, the nine-week low has been caused by Mt. Gox redemptions, miner selling, and political uncertainty in the U.S.
Analysts have predicted that the asset could fall as low as $50,000 during this market pullback.