It’s Over: The German Government Has Run Out Of Bitcoin

Germany’s on-chain Bitcoin wallet balance has officially reached zero, according to Arkham Intelligence, meaning sell pressure from the European economic powerhouse is likely at or near its end.

The wallet’s latest outflows bring an end to a bearish narrative that’s hung over the crypto market for weeks, at a time when on-chain indicators are signaling that a local bottom is near.

Germany’s Last Bitcoin Sale

As of late Thursday, Arkham said that the government had just 4925 BTC ($282.45 million) left sitting in its wallets. That’s down from the 50,000 BTC the state-owned as recently as recently as June 19, as officially seized from the movie piracy website Movie2kin January.

Early on Friday, the government received back 4169 BTC from exchanges including Kraken, Coinbase, and Bitstamp, before sending back 2700 BTC to such platforms by 5:00 am ET.

By 10am, the state had sent another 2300 BTC to Kraken, an unidentified address, and a likely institutional deposit/ over-the-counter trading service. Later at roughly 2:35 pm, the government sent all of its remaining 3846.05 BTC ($223.81M) to the institutional trading desk and Flow Traders – a proprietary trading firm.

Does This Mark The Bitcoin Bottom?

Germany’s sales began at a time when the U.S. government was also selling some of its coins seized from criminals, and market fears surrounding repayments to creditors of the bankrupt Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange abounded.

Combined with minimal demand growth from Bitcoin whales and a lack of stablecoin liquidity, low bullish momentum pushed Bitcoin’s price down to $53,900 last Friday – its largest pullback yet from its March high of $73,700.

Bitcoin investors online are celebrating the government’s completed selloff, while also criticizing the state for forfeiting their coins for fiat currency.

“Germany full stack dumping their seized BTC may go down as one of the biggest strategic blunders in history as soon as the next few decades,” tweeted Reflexivity Research co-founder Will Clemente on Friday.

MicroStrategy’s executive chairman Michael Saylor also took a subtle jab at the government on Friday, tweeting “Du verkaufst deine Bitcoin nicht,” translating from German to “You do not sell your Bitcoin.”

With the selloff finished, on-chain analysts say Bitcoin’s price looks like a healthy entry point for new investors.

Earlier this week, institutional investors accumulated BTC at their fastest rate since March, suggesting that they’ve deliberately been ‘buying the dip.’ Meanwhile, short-term holders have been selling their coins at a loss en masse, which analysts say is a good sign that market fear has peaked, and the price is due for a correction.