Bitcoin Drops as German Government Unloads Over $900M Worth of BTC

Bitcoin (BTC) fell on Monday afternoon in Europe as the German government transferred over $900 million worth of assets from its bitcoin holdings, blockchain data shows.

According to blockchain data platform Arkham Intelligence, Bitcoin wallets labeled as belonging to the German government moved a total of roughly 16,309 BTC in several batches to external addresses, including to crypto exchanges Bitstamp, Kraken and Coinbase and market makers Flow Traders and Cumberland DRW.

Bitcoin’s price dropped 3% to as low as $55,000 shortly after the last group of blockchain transactions totalling 8,700 BTC. Later, it rebounded to slightly above $56,000, still down 1.2% over the past 24 hours.

The price action came after last week’s slide to the lowest price since February. Market observers pointed to a massive supply overhang coming to the market during the relatively quiet and low-volume summer season with the German and U.S. governments apparently selling seized assets just as the defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox starts to issue repayments.

With the latest transfers, the German government is more than halfway through its selling spree, with holdings now reduced to 23,788 BTC worth $1.3 billion from 50,000 BTC since it started unloading tokens last month, according to Arkham data.

UPDATE (July 8, 16:10 UTC): Updates headline, story with aggregate numbers of BTC transferred from German government addresses, citing Arkham.