David Edwards
Given that the price of Bitcoin has since more than doubled, Germany’s choice to sell off almost 50,000 of the cryptocurrency at $57,900 apiece in the middle of 2025 was a huge loss of opportunity. Bitcoin recently hit $120,000, according to TradingView statistics, increasing the sold assets’ notional value to about $6 billion.
The sale was carried out by the Saxon Central Office for the Custody and Utilization of Virtual Currencies between June 19 and July 12 in cooperation with the Federal Criminal Police Office, the Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office, and Frankfurt’s Bankhaus Scheich Wertpapierspezialist AG. About $2.8 billion was made from Bitcoin assets that were seized as part of the “Movie2k” criminal probe.
Bitcoin is currently trading close to $120,700 after a 10% increase this week that caused the currency to reach fresh all-time highs.
Germany’s hasty withdrawal is similar to earlier U.S. government moves, including the sale of more than 195,000 Bitcoins for a total of $366 million during the previous ten years. According to Casa Chief Security Officer Jameson Lopp, such amount would be worth more than $23 billion today.
According to on-chain data gathered by Arkham Intelligence, the U.S. government still has more over 198,000 Bitcoin, valued at almost $24 billion, despite previous sales.
These incidents highlight the increasing difficulty governments encounter in regulating the sale of digital assets, particularly in light of Bitcoin’s rising popularity and volatility. With Bitcoin’s limited supply and growing institutional demand, analysts contend that holding the cryptocurrency for a longer period of time may have greater strategic value than liquidating it right away.
