150 Million Dollars In Cryptocurrencies Transferred By German And US Governments
On 1 July, after some earlier movements, the German and US executives sold $150 million in cryptocurrencies.
July opened with two major governmental cryptocurrency transfers, made by the German and US executives. Berlin made large transfers of Bitcoin, amounting to a total of 1,500 tokens (close to USD 95 million) and allocating them to various cryptocurrency exchanges, while Washington transferred 3,375 Ethereum (approximately USD 11.75 million) to an unknown address. Needless to say, these moves, which occurred almost simultaneously by the two institutional players, caught the attention of the international crypto-community.
The Movements of the German Government
The on-chain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence, always quite reliable, has been tracking German government transactions for a few weeks now. Its professionals have been keeping track of Berlin's movements. The locomotive executive of Europe, as it is called, has moved a total of 2,700 BTC on well-known cryptocurrency exchanges in the last two weeks: Bitstamp, Coinbase, Kraken and others. It has to be said that the German government has a considerable treasury in cryptocurrencies and is still credited with 44,692 BTC. It therefore has $2.82 billion still available in its coffers, just by calculating the current value of the currency.
The American Government and its Transactions in Cryptocurrencies
Arkham Intelligence itself has also kept track of Washington's movements, more subdued than Berlin's, but still considerable. In this case,the cryptocurrency sold was Ethereum. In recent times, those who manage the White House wallet have authorised large ETH transfers. The address that released the funds is one of several controlled by the government: it is the one that contains the funds confiscated from the Estonian crypto-entrepreneurs Potapenko and Turogin, linked to Russia's operations.
The US transferred, to a currently unknown address, all of the $11.75 million in Ethereum on that e-wallet. On 30 June they did the same with 11.84 BTC, worth $743,000, from a different address from the one they used on 1 July, also containing seized funds. In short, we are talking about considerable moves, which could have a non-negligible impact on the global dynamics of the cryptocurrency market.
What Do These Cryptocurrency Transfers Carry
Why would the German and American governments have decided on this management of their cryptocurrencies? While we can understand the US moves, since it is a seizure of seized currency, and thus a gain linked to cybercriminal operations on which it would not be ethically correct to speculate, Berlin's decision is more puzzling.
And yet, we can trace both movements dated 1 July, and the earlier ones highlighted by Arkham Intelligence, to an intention on the part of both executives to more strategically manage their cryptocurrency assets linked to decentralised finance. It is, after all, a liquidity that is not immediately spendable and it is cunderstandable the desire to turn it, at least part of it, into money that can immediately be invested in welfare.
The Motivations of the Two Governments
To an outside analysis - carried out by SpazioCrypto which is in no way related to the two governments, and therefore may not be 100% accurate - it would appear that Washington is determined to change its methodology for handling cryptocurrencies. Let us not be surprised, after all, it is highly likely that much will change on this front between the end of the year and early 2025, when more and more ETFs linked to crypto will be purchasable on Wall Street and there will be a closer administration to this rapidly expanding sector, especially if Donald Trump, who has already announced that he would like to stand by the DeFI, without hindering its development as much as he has done in the past.
As far as Berlin is concerned, however, it is plausible that its relocations are due to the entry into force of the new MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) regulation, which the EU will gradually adopt from the end of this year. The new regulation legitimises cryptocurrencies within continental finance, but not all of them. It is therefore possible that, as it comes into force, the market will become increasingly restricted and competitive, so selling earlier might make sense if one does not trust the immediate future. Who knows, perhaps Germany wouldn't want to liquidate at least part of its holdings on major assets for this very reason.
Regardless of what the reasons are, the cryptocurrency market offers good opportunities for investors with considerable spending power, such as institutional players. For this reason, there might not even be any particularly complex explanations behind these movements, and both Washington and Berlin simply wanted to monetise, turning part of their hoard into cryptocurrencies. At the end of the day, the token reserves of both executives remain substantial even after these transactions.
With nearly $4.6 billion in options contracts on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) expiring, the cryptocurrency market is bracing for increased volatility.
July opened with two major governmental cryptocurrency transfers, made by the German and US executives. Berlin made large transfers of Bitcoin, amounting to a total of 1,500 tokens (close to USD 95 million) and allocating them to various cryptocurrency exchanges, while Washington transferred 3,375 Ethereum (approximately USD 11.75 million) to an unknown address. Needless to say, these moves, which occurred almost simultaneously by the two institutional players, caught the attention of the international crypto-community.
The Movements of the German Government
The on-chain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence, always quite reliable, has been tracking German government transactions for a few weeks now. Its professionals have been keeping track of Berlin's movements. The locomotive executive of Europe, as it is called, has moved a total of 2,700 BTC on well-known cryptocurrency exchanges in the last two weeks: Bitstamp, Coinbase, Kraken and others. It has to be said that the German government has a considerable treasury in cryptocurrencies and is still credited with 44,692 BTC. It therefore has $2.82 billion still available in its coffers, just by calculating the current value of the currency.
The American Government and its Transactions in Cryptocurrencies
Arkham Intelligence itself has also kept track of Washington's movements, more subdued than Berlin's, but still considerable. In this case,the cryptocurrency sold was Ethereum. In recent times, those who manage the White House wallet have authorised large ETH transfers. The address that released the funds is one of several controlled by the government: it is the one that contains the funds confiscated from the Estonian crypto-entrepreneurs Potapenko and Turogin, linked to Russia's operations.
The US transferred, to a currently unknown address, all of the $11.75 million in Ethereum on that e-wallet. On 30 June they did the same with 11.84 BTC, worth $743,000, from a different address from the one they used on 1 July, also containing seized funds. In short, we are talking about considerable moves, which could have a non-negligible impact on the global dynamics of the cryptocurrency market.
What Do These Cryptocurrency Transfers Carry
Why would the German and American governments have decided on this management of their cryptocurrencies? While we can understand the US moves, since it is a seizure of seized currency, and thus a gain linked to cybercriminal operations on which it would not be ethically correct to speculate, Berlin's decision is more puzzling.
And yet, we can trace both movements dated 1 July, and the earlier ones highlighted by Arkham Intelligence, to an intention on the part of both executives to more strategically manage their cryptocurrency assets linked to decentralised finance. It is, after all, a liquidity that is not immediately spendable and it is cunderstandable the desire to turn it, at least part of it, into money that can immediately be invested in welfare.
The Motivations of the Two Governments
To an outside analysis - carried out by SpazioCrypto which is in no way related to the two governments, and therefore may not be 100% accurate - it would appear that Washington is determined to change its methodology for handling cryptocurrencies. Let us not be surprised, after all, it is highly likely that much will change on this front between the end of the year and early 2025, when more and more ETFs linked to crypto will be purchasable on Wall Street and there will be a closer administration to this rapidly expanding sector, especially if Donald Trump, who has already announced that he would like to stand by the DeFI, without hindering its development as much as he has done in the past.
As far as Berlin is concerned, however, it is plausible that its relocations are due to the entry into force of the new MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) regulation, which the EU will gradually adopt from the end of this year. The new regulation legitimises cryptocurrencies within continental finance, but not all of them. It is therefore possible that, as it comes into force, the market will become increasingly restricted and competitive, so selling earlier might make sense if one does not trust the immediate future. Who knows, perhaps Germany wouldn't want to liquidate at least part of its holdings on major assets for this very reason.
Regardless of what the reasons are, the cryptocurrency market offers good opportunities for investors with considerable spending power, such as institutional players. For this reason, there might not even be any particularly complex explanations behind these movements, and both Washington and Berlin simply wanted to monetise, turning part of their hoard into cryptocurrencies. At the end of the day, the token reserves of both executives remain substantial even after these transactions.
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