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- The German government has sold more than $195 million of Bitcoins seized from pirated movie website operators.
- Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) seized a total of 50,000 Bitcoins from Movie2k.to, a film piracy website that was active in 2013.
- The government still holds a substantial balance of Bitcoins worth $3.05 billion.
The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has sold over $195 million in Bitcoin seized from a pirated movie website in January 2024, recent reports reveal. This marks a significant move by the agency, which is reportedly liquidating a portion of its largest-ever cryptocurrency seizure.
Crypto journalist Laura Shin shared an X post detailing BKA’s massive Bitcoin sell-off. According to her post, the German government is selling the Bitcoins accumulated from the reportedly largest crypto seizure
The German government has started selling over $195 million worth of the bitcoin it seized from the operators of a pirated movie website in January.@tikta_ reportshttps://t.co/IyxsLh8DmL— Laura Shin (@laurashin) June 21, 2024
According to Arkham Intelligence data, BKA began selling Bitcoin on June 19, moving $600 million worth of BTC. Of that amount, $130 million was sent to exchanges like Kraken and Bitstamp. The following day, the team transferred another $65 million worth of Bitcoins to Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN).
In February 2024, Arkham Intelligence reported the German authorities’ seizure of 50,000 Bitcoins, valued at approximately $2.12 billion at the time. Arkham revealed that the Bitcoins were confiscated from Movie2k.to, a film piracy website that operated in 2013.
The German Government is now on Arkham.The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) seized almost 50,000 BTC ($2.12B) from the operators of https://t.co/ck07DiJUAf, a film piracy website that was active in 2013.The BKA received the Bitcoin in mid-January after a ‘voluntary… pic.twitter.com/0kC5tOPq6e— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) January 31, 2024
Reports indicate that the government revealed the website operators had engaged in large-scale BTC purchases using profits from advertising fees and subscription revenues. While one of the operators voluntarily transferred 50,000 Bitcoins to the wallet associated with BKA, it was not revealed then if the government would sell them.
As of this writing, the government still holds a substantial balance of $3.05 billion in BTC. As the government continues to sell the remaining BTC, large players in the industry could capitalize on the opportunity.Crypto analyst, Daan Crypto Trades, observed a notable drop in Bitcoin’s value at the time of the government’s Bitcoin transfer. While BKA moved $425 million of the total $3 billion+, Bitcoin experienced a $500 drop in its value. At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $64,713, with a daily dip of 0.63% and a weekly decrease of 2.94%.
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