TLDR
- Germany’s Saxony state sold 50,000 BTC for $2.87 billion, making a $740 million profit.
- The sale was completed on July 13, just before Bitcoin prices rose 16.55%.
- If sold at Bitcoin’s peak in March, the state could have made $1.5 billion in profit.
- The sale was ordered due to fears of a potential 10% drop in Bitcoin’s value.
- There’s increasing demand for Bitcoin among ETF and fund investors.
The German state of Saxony recently sold a large amount of Bitcoin, but the timing of the sale meant they missed out on even bigger profits.
On July 13, Saxony completed the sale of 50,000 Bitcoin that had been seized from a movie piracy website called movie2k.
The sale brought in about $2.87 billion, which was $740 million more than the Bitcoin was worth when the government got it in January.
However, right after Germany sold its Bitcoin, the price went up by 16.55%. This jump in price happened because of news about former U.S. President Donald Trump.
If Saxony had waited just a little longer to sell, they could have made even more money.
The decision to sell came from the Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office. They were worried that Bitcoin’s value might drop by more than 10%.
They said that when dealing with seized items that could lose value quickly, they have to sell them before the criminal case is over.
The office explained that Bitcoin’s price changes so fast and by such large amounts that they always met the conditions for an “emergency sale.”
The prosecutor’s office also said that it’s against the law for them to try to make more money by waiting for prices to go up before selling seized items. Their main goal was to get money to use in the criminal case against movie2k.
Interestingly, if Saxony had sold the Bitcoin in March when its price hit a record high of about $74,000, they could have made even more money. A sale then could have brought in $1.5 billion in profits.
The German government isn’t the only one dealing with large amounts of Bitcoin. Last year, the U.S. government sold some Bitcoin it had taken from a website called Silk Road.
On the other hand, some countries, like El Salvador, are actually buying Bitcoin as a national asset.
While Germany was selling its Bitcoin, more investors were trying to buy it. James Butterfill, who works at a company called CoinShares, said that in the week ending July 13, Bitcoin saw the fifth-largest amount of money ever put into it in a single week.
He thinks that the lower price caused by Germany’s sale, along with some good economic news in the U.S., made investors want to buy more Bitcoin.
This situation shows how tricky it can be to deal with Bitcoin. Its price can change very quickly, which can lead to big gains or losses in a short time.
For governments that end up with Bitcoin from criminal cases, deciding when to sell can be a challenge. They have to balance following the law, which says they should sell quickly, with the possibility of making more money by waiting.
