The German government’s Bitcoin wallets are officially empty after a sell-off than spanned more than three weeks.
The Dresden public prosecutor’s office announced the successful completion of the sale of close to 50,000 BTC that netted $2.88 billion. German authorities enlisted Frankfurt-based bank Bankhaus Scheich to sell the bitcoins in their possession between June 19 and July 12.
“The bank was commissioned to sell the bitcoins in a way that was fair and gentle on the market,” said the Dresden’s public prosecutor’s office in a statement.
“The current daily value of the bitcoins and other unforeseeable circumstances that affect the price are irrelevant to the decision as to whether and when an emergency sale will take place.”
Authorities also noted that selling the bitcoins was conducted via an “emergency sale,” referring to the sale of seized assets at short notice before the conclusion of ongoing criminal proceedings. The bitcoin was seized from the operators of a pirated movie website movie2k.co in January — bitcoin was trading at around $43,000 at the time,
When the German authorities began selling their stash, the price of bitcoin was trading at $65,000, within striking distance of its all-time high of $73,750. After the German authorities initiated selling, the price of bitcoin dropped as low as $53,905, but has since recovered to around $64,400 at press time.
Still, the German authorities maintained that the bitcoin sales were carried out through a large number of small tranches over three and a half weeks, and each of these over the counter (OTC) trades represented no more than 1% of bitcoin’s market volume.
“At this scale, there is no direct influence on the bitcoin price,” the German authorities said.
The proceeds from the sale will not immediately represent additional income for the government, and will be held in custody until criminal proceedings have concluded.
