A German government agency today moved $425 million in bitcoin (BTC) to another wallet address, Arkham data appears to show, sending some on to crypto exchange deposit wallets and returning some to the starting point.
The wallet address, previously identified as belonging to the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) by Arkham, moved 6,500 BTC to the address “bc1q0unygz3ddt8x0v33s6ztxkrnw0s0tl7zk4yxwd” and then back to itself. Transactional data shows that a tranche of $32 million worth of bitcoin was deposited on crypto exchange Kraken and a similar amount on Bitstamp.
German entity moved millions worth of bitcoin across wallets and crypto exchanges on Wednesday. (Arkham)Arkham CEO Miguel More told CoinDesk over Telegram that the entity appeared to have moved $130 million in BTC to “service wallets,” which generally indicates an “intention to sell in the near future.”
Mantle blockchain strategist @Defi_Maestro flagged the movements on X earlier.
BKA seized almost 50,000 BTC, worth over $2 billion at the time, from the operators of Movie2k.to, a film piracy website that was active in 2013. The BKA received the bitcoin in mid-January after a "voluntary transfer" from the suspects, according to Arkham.
Edited by Sheldon Reback.