Saxony’s bitcoin sales cause market turbulence
Since June 19th, the Saxony public prosecutor’s office has caused significant Bitcoin market fluctuations by selling nearly 50,000 seized bitcoins. The sale, worth around $3.15 billion, led to notable price drops and rebounds.
The Saxony public prosecutor’s office in Germany has caused significant fluctuations in the bitcoin market since 19 June 2024 by selling nearly 50,000 bitcoins seized from the illegal streaming platform Movie2k.to. According to crypto on-chain analytics platform Arkham, the German authorities offloaded the last 3,094 bitcoins, worth about $180 million, on 12 July, reducing the wallet balance from a peak of $3.6 billion to just $321.
The sales led to notable bitcoin price changes, with BTC falling from over $70,000 to below $54,000 within a month before rebounding to nearly $63,000. The sales were conducted on the over-the-counter (OTC) market rather than regular exchanges. Despite the significant transactions, German authorities have neither confirmed nor denied these sales.
The bitcoins, initially obtained as advertising revenue between 2011 and 2013 when bitcoin prices ranged from 2 to 230 euros, are now valued at approximately $3.15 billion, surging to a two-week high following an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. The transactions involved two suspects connected to Movie2k.to the platform, who voluntarily transferred the bitcoins to Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).
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