The German government completed the sale of its remaining Bitcoin holdings on July 12. The final transaction involved 3,846 Bitcoin, valued at around $62,604 per Bitcoin, which were sent to “Flow Traders and 139Po,” entities likely to institutional deposit/OTC services, according to Arkham Intelligence.
The majority of the 50,000 Bitcoin sold by the German government over the past three weeks originated from asset seizures. This sale marked the culmination of weeks of increased selling activity by the German government, which has offloaded tens of thousands of Bitcoin in multiple tranches. This significant liquidation has been a key factor in keeping the sell-off of Bitcoin to a low of $54,000 on July 5.
Despite Germany’s exit from its Bitcoin holdings, market pressures remain due to the impending $9 billion Mt. Gox reimbursement plan. The Mt. Gox exchange, which collapsed in 2014 when Bitcoin’s price was still in the hundreds of dollars, has long been a source of market anxiety. The reimbursement plan aims to compensate creditors, potentially adding significant selling pressure to the market in the coming weeks. However, it is hard to estimate the impact of the Mt Gox reimbursement on the markets due to various factors.
Amidst the heightened selling pressure, institutional investors seized the opportunity to buy the dip. Data from CoinShares showed that U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw inflows of $295 million during the week of July 8, reversing a trend of suppressed inflows into these investment funds. This activity suggests that institutional investors remain confident in the long-term prospects of Bitcoin.
