Arkham Identifies $5B in BTC Not Seized by the German Government from Movie2k

The German government could soon have a new chance to re-enter the Bitcoin (BTC) market. After selling its BTC holdings in mid-2024, Arkham Intelligence has announced that it has uncovered over 45k BTCs valued at about $5 billion, which the German government failed to seize from Movie2K, a defunct film piracy website.

Arkham reported that the Movie2k operators voluntarily failed to transfer 45k BTCs to the German government. Moreover, the German government did not identify the extra wallets, which have remained inactive since 2019.

“We found another cluster of Bitcoin connected to earlier Movie2K movements and addresses that totals approximately 45,000 BTC (currently worth $4.99B). This is most likely still under the control of the Movie2K operators. It has not moved since 2019, and is split across over 100 Bitcoin wallets,” Arkham noted.

Will the German Government HODL or Sell if It Seizes?

The Bitcoin market experienced bearish sentiment during the period between June and July 2024 partially due to the sales by the German government. Notably, the German government sold 50k BTCs last year for about $2.8 billion, which has since doubled in value to date. 

If the German government proceeds to seize identified BTCs from Movie2K and decides to offload, a bearish sentiment will be recorded. However, if the German government decides to hold its seized assets, the Bitcoin market will gain bullish momentum fueled by the positive outlook.

Worth noting that the Free Democratic Party (FDP) proposed creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve but the idea remains speculative and is not regulated.