German Government Entity Moves $24M Bitcoin to Kraken, Coinbase: Arkham

  • The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) transferred $24 million in Bitcoin across two transactions to crypto exchanges Kraken and Coinbase.
  • Another $30 million worth of BTC was moved to a new wallet, with previous transfers totaling $195 million in BTC sent to exchanges on June 19 and 20.

A wallet connected to the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) today moved $24 million in bitcoin {{BTC}} across two transactions to crypto exchanges Kraken and Coinbase in European morning hours, Arkham data shows.

Another $30 million worth of BTC was moved to a new wallet, which has not been tagged as an exchange as of Tuesday. These transfers are in addition to $130 million in BTC sent to exchanges on June 19 and $65 million in BTC sent on June 20, as previously reported.

Arkham CEO Miguel More told CoinDesk over Telegram last week that moving to exchanges may indicate an intention to sell the assets.

As such, a $24 million bitcoin sale is a relatively small amount. Over $40 billion worth of BTC exchanged hands in the past 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows. There’s ready liquidity for up to $20 million in a BTC trade on Binance alone – meaning the amount is unlikely to immediately move prices.

The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) seized almost 50,000 BTC, worth over $2 billion at the time, from the operators of Movie2k.to, a film piracy website that was active in 2013.

The BKA received the Bitcoin in mid-January after a ‘voluntary transfer’ from the suspects.