German investigators sell more than $195 million in seized Bitcoin

The German Federal Criminal Police (BKA) recently sold more than $195 million worth of Bitcoin, which was seized in January 2024 from a website selling pirated movies. This is evident from recent reports.

The move represents a significant step by the agency, which is liquidating part of its largest ever cryptocurrency seizure.

Also moved large amounts of Bitcoin

Cryptojournalist Laura Shin brought attention to the BKA’s huge Bitcoin sell-off via an X-message. According to her post, the German government is selling the Bitcoins collected in what is reportedly the largest cryptocurrency seizure ever.

Based on data from Arkham Intelligence, the BKA started selling Bitcoin on June 19 and moved $600 million worth of BTC. Of this amount, $130 million was sent to exchanges such as Kraken and Bitstamp. The next day, the team transferred another $65 million worth of Bitcoins to Coinbase.

In February 2024, Arkham Intelligence reported that German authorities had seized 50,000 Bitcoins, worth approximately $2.12 billion at the time. Arkham revealed that the Bitcoins were seized from Movie2k.to, a movie piracy website that operated in 2013.

Still over $3 billion in BTC

Reports indicate that the government disclosed that the website operators had made large-scale BTC purchases with profits from advertising fees and subscription revenue. Although one of the administrators voluntarily transferred 50,000 Bitcoins to the wallet linked to the BKA, it was not announced at the time whether the government would sell them.

Currently, the government still has a substantial balance of $3.05 billion in BTC. As the government continues to sell off the remaining BTC, major industry players could take advantage of this opportunity.

Crypto analyst Daan Crypto Trades noticed a notable drop in the value of Bitcoin at the time of the government’s Bitcoin transfer. While the BKA moved $425 million of the total $3 billion+, Bitcoin suffered a $500 drop in its value.