It’s Not Germany Selling Bitcoin. It’s One of Its States and It Has No Choice. #NewsGerman

• It’s not the country of Germany that’s been selling millions of dollars worth of bitcoin, but a small German state called Saxony.

• The state confiscated almost 50,000 BTC in January and has been selling its holdings as per standard practice for assets seized during criminal investigations, an expert said.

For days, news outlets worldwide have reported on Germany’s sale of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoin {{BTC}} and the ensuing distress in markets and major sell-offs in crypto prices.

First, it’s not Germany itself that is selling the cryptocurrency. It is a small state in the eastern part of the country called Saxony.

Second, though crypto fans have roasted the decision to dump so much of their beloved bitcoin, Saxony doesn’t have a choice.

Earlier this year, the state’s Criminal Police Office (known by its German acronym LKA) seized 49,857 bitcoin (worth almost $3 billion at current prices) from the operator of Movie2k.to, a website Saxony found guilty of money laundering and other illegal activities.

About a week ago, a crypto wallet that belongs to the German Federal Criminal Police Office, or BKA, started moving thousands of BTC to exchanges including Kraken, Coinbase and Bitstamp, signaling an intent to sell them. The wallet’s bitcoin holdings have dwindled to 23,788.

Reactions on social media have been harsh.

“Germany selling all their #Bitcoin will go down as one of the most retarded things their politicians ever did,” one X user wrote.

“Germany’s govt officials are literal idiots,” another said.

But what’s happening in Germany isn’t a bad investment strategy – it is merely standard procedure that applies to assets confiscated in criminal investigations, an expert said.

“The general prosecutor’s office of Saxony is responsible for liquidating confiscated assets, and the sell-off is hardly surprising,” said Dr. Lennart Ante, co-founder and CEO of German-based Blockchain Research Lab. “Seized assets are always liquidated within a certain period. This is a routine business process, although at a larger-than-normal scale.”

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