Increased Government Crypto Transfers to Exchanges
Recently, both the German and US governments have escalated their cryptocurrency transfers from wallets, according to Arkham analytics. These transactions, amounting to millions of dollars, largely involve confiscated bitcoins. Market participants interpret these actions as governments’ intent to sell assets on crypto exchanges.
German Government Transactions
According to Arkham, the German government transferred an additional 400 BTC (over $25 million) to exchanges like Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Kraken. In total, 2,700 BTC (approximately $170 million) were moved from their wallets over the past two weeks.
On June 19, 7,500 BTC were withdrawn from the German government’s wallet, including 200 BTC sent to Coinbase, allegedly seized from the creators of the Movie2k pirate site in January. Another 200 BTC each were sent to Coinbase and Kraken on June 25. Approximately 44,000 bitcoins worth $2.7 billion still remain in their wallet.
US Government Wallet Transactions
Simultaneously, the US-controlled wallet transferred 3,375 ETH ($11.7 million) to a new address. Assets on this wallet were confiscated from HashFlare cloud mining platform founders and Polybius Bank’s Sergey Potapenko and Ivan Turogin. On June 28, 11.84 bitcoins ($726,000) were also transferred from the same wallet.
According to Arkham, US-controlled wallets hold over $13 billion in confiscated crypto assets, including bitcoins, various stablecoins (from USDT to DAI), ETH, and other tokens. On June 26, confiscated bitcoins worth $240 million were transferred from one of the US government wallets to Coinbase.
Rise in Dormant Wallet Activity
Over the last three months, there has been increased activity in dormant wallets, which had long shown no transactions. From April to June 2024, experts observed significant transfers to exchanges.
On June 27, a wallet that had mined 50 BTC independently 14 years ago suddenly moved these bitcoins to Binance. Another large holder, who kept 1,000 BTC (approximately $61 million at current rates) for six years, transferred their assets to the US crypto exchange Coinbase.
Recent Market Activity
In mid-June, leading US mining company Marathon Digital sold 5,000 BTC ($330 million) from its reserves, constituting 8% of its total volume.
On July 1, an investor who participated in Ethereum’s 2015 initial coin offering (ICO), receiving 254,900 ETH (priced at $0.31 during ICO), transferred 7,000 ETH ($24.28 million) to the Kraken crypto exchange. Currently, this user holds 40,000 Ethereum coins worth $139.5 million.
