According to Foresight News, The Block reported that after the German government transferred more than 10,000 bitcoins to exchanges and market makers on Monday, nearly 3,000 bitcoins (worth about $163 million) were returned later that day. According to Arkham Intelligence data, the German government received 2,898 bitcoins returned by the exchange at 4:15 am Beijing time today, worth about $163 million, mainly from Coinbase, Kraken and Bitstamp.

Steven Zheng, director of research at The Block, said the exchange was likely to return the bitcoins because it could not sell them within the target price range. Data shows that the German government currently holds 27,461 bitcoins, worth about $1.56 billion.