Reports of Germany selling millions in Bitcoin have been widespread, but Saxony is making the sales. Despite criticism from the crypto community, Saxony has no choice but to proceed with the sale.
After confiscating nearly $3 billion worth of Bitcoin in January, the state of Saxony has sold over half of its initial holdings, causing market turmoil. The state, located in eastern Germany, seized 49,857 BTC from Movie2k.to for money laundering and other crimes. In line with standard procedure for assets seized in criminal cases, Saxony has been liquidating these holdings.
“The general prosecutor’s office of Saxony is responsible for liquidating confiscated assets, and the sell-off is hardly surprising,” said Dr. Lennart Ante, co-founder and CEO of German-based Blockchain Research Lab. “Seized assets are always liquidated within a certain period. This is a routine business process, although at a larger-than-normal scale.”
See Related: Mt. Gox Starts Paying Back Creditors In Bitcoin After 10-Year Wait.
Recently, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) began moving thousands of BTC to exchanges like Kraken, Coinbase, and Bitstamp, reducing the wallet’s holdings to 9,094 BTC. Arkham Intelligence showed that the wallet address is currently worth more than $516 million.
Mt. Gox And Bitcoin Hacking
Mt. Gox was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, based in Japan, which collapsed in 2014. The exchange lost approximately 850,000 Bitcoins (BTC) to hacking and mismanagement. At its peak, it handled around 70% of all Bitcoin transactions worldwide.
The exchange currently holds around 142,000 BTC and other assets recovered from the collapse. The distribution of these assets is expected to start in the second half of 2024. This large-scale distribution could significantly affect Bitcoin’s price by increasing market supply.
