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

Tuesday’s movements come days after the entity shifted $425 million among wallets, with some bitcoin transferred to exchanges.

Updated Jun 25, 2024, 11:46 a.m. Published Jun 25, 2024, 11:44 a.m.
(Jason Leung/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)
(Jason Leung/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)
  • 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 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.

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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.

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