Movie2k bitcoins worth billions: much ado about little
The state of Saxony is making headlines with the possible sale of thousands of Bitcoin. But not much has happened yet.
(Image: kitti Suwanekkasit/Shutterstock.com)
The German authorities are apparently currently moving tens of millions of euros worth of bitcoins back and forth, in some cases to the wallets of trading exchanges Bitstamp, Coinbase and Kraken. The analysis company Arkham Intelligence drew attention to this, triggering a wave of media articles and social media discussions.
Via X / Twitter, Arkham writes about possible crypto sales by the German government. The Bitcoins come from the proceedings against the early illegal streaming portal Movie2k – the alleged operator handed over wallets with the keys of 50,000 BTC at the beginning of the year.
The people behind Movie2k are said to have bought these bitcoins between 2011 and 2013 with the advertising revenue from their website. Back then, they were hardly worth anything, but today, thanks to massive price increases, they have a total value of 2.85 billion euros.
The authorities have never officially confirmed the Movie2k wallets and their own addresses. Based solely on the transaction history in terms of volume and timing, Arkham came to the conclusion that the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) must own five wallets with the following addresses, among others:
- bc1qgrvchamnmmaancn3vwea6elnvexpylzh30rhjz
- bc1q0unygz3ddt8x0v33s6ztxkrnw0s0tl7zk4yxwd
- bc1q93njc4we4s088a2nz6c9e6vthc5h4ake53rxmd
- bc1qnwft8re0tkkyekd4nl34dqvgmwx3zsfyxfadfg
- bc1q9agtd4sk5r06vqcsy3ewdr0dslf03dlj3agtva
In the past seven days, more than 10,000 bitcoins have been moved from these wallets, with a large proportion simply being moved back and forth between the wallets. 2100 Bitcoins worth around 120 million euros were sent to addresses that can be safely assigned to the Bitstamp, Coinbase and Kraken exchanges.
No price impact to be expected
Arkham presents the transfers in such a way that the sale has already begun. Many reports are jumping on the bandwagon and asking whether the authorities could trigger a price slide.
However, the transfers to exchanges do not mean that the bitcoins are actually being sold – they are nevertheless conspicuous. Even if the state of Saxony sells the cryptocurrency, this is unlikely to have any impact on the price trend.
In the past 24 hours alone, the well-known trading exchanges recorded a BTC trading volume worth almost 38 billion euros. To influence the price, all 50,000 Bitcoins would have to be sold at once. However, there are currently no signs of this happening.
German bureaucracy
The large number of authorities involved makes the situation confusing. The BKA, for example, only sees itself as a custodian for the responsible public prosecutor's offices, i.e. primarily the Dresden office. The original seizure was carried out by the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) of Saxony.
After a legally valid conviction at the latest, the sale of seized assets is typical. The BKA wrote to us: "The proceeds of seized assets flow to the respective state treasury in which the competent court is based in accordance with Section 60 of the Penal Enforcement Code."
The legal proceedings regarding Movie2k are still ongoing. It is therefore questionable whether the authorities involved are even allowed to sell the bitcoins now.
(mma)
