Germany is selling a significant amount of Bitcoin (BTC) it seized as part of an investigation into an illegal movie streaming site.
Blockchain analytics company Arkham reports that the German government has transferred more than $195 million worth of Bitcoin to six cryptocurrency exchanges over the past two days, including Coinbase, Kraken and Bitstamp.
“The German government is still selling >$195 million worth of BTC. In the last two hours, the German government has sent $65 million in BTC to two likely exchange deposits, including Coinbase. Yesterday, the German government transferred $600 million in BTC, sending 130 million BTC to four likely exchange deposits, including Kraken and Bitstamp.”
Despite transferring a significant amount of Bitcoin to cryptocurrency exchanges, Germany still owns over 47,179 Bitcoin worth $3.06 billion.
Germany is selling a stash of bitcoins that law enforcement seized during an inspection of Movie2k.to. The now-defunct illegal streaming site was accused of distributing more than 880,000 pirated movies between 2008 and May 2013.
Dresden prosecutors said the two site operators purchased bitcoin using proceeds from their illegal activities.
The bitcoin seizure in connection with the investigation is the largest of its kind in Germany to date. At that time, the police confiscated about 50,000 BTC worth $2.17 billion. The seized assets are now valued at $3.25 billion.
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