In mid-January, German police announced the results of an unprecedented police operation, seizing more than 50,000 Bitcoins in what is considered one of the most significant money laundering operations of all time.

50,000 BTC is a lot of money. Germany arrested two main suspects, and in the process, Saxony authorities seized the equivalent of more than $2.2 billion worth of Bitcoin at the time — a large sum of money they are now trying to dispose of.

Germany starts selling these bitcoins. The Federal Police Office (BKA) has been offering hundreds of Bitcoins for sale since last month, according to CNBC. There are currently around 900 Bitcoins worth around $52 million.

Last week, around 3,000 BTC were offered for sale. And last Monday, another 2,739 Bitcoins worth more than $150 million arrived. Another 8,100 BTC were offered for sale on exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase shortly after, according to Arkham Intelligence. In total, around 16,000 BTC were offered for sale.

The analytics platform itself has created a website to track the movements of the German government, which currently owns 22,846 BTC worth over $1.3 billion.

This is the origin of BTCs. German police are making money from selling Bitcoin that was originally in the hands of two users who controlled the site Movie2k.to. Although originally in the hands of people involved in criminal activities, they now belong to the police and have changed hands again.

The fact that so many bitcoins are for sale does not please investors. Tron network founder and famous crypto investor Justin Sun expressed his willingness to negotiate with the German government to purchase the entire Bitcoin portfolio in order to “minimize the impact on the market” on the social network.

According to CryptoPotato, Bitfinex analysts explain that the impact of these sales goes beyond the money raised: “Amounts of approximately $70 million are equivalent to approximately $450 million.”

This is still a small amount. According to CoinGecko, there are around 19.7 million bitcoins in circulation every day, equivalent to more than a trillion dollars. Germany’s 16,000 BTC for sale is significant but minimal compared to the global market.

CoinShares president James Butterfill says the significance of the sale is more a matter of “sentiment” than actual impact.

Opposing voices. Not all authorities support this strategy of the German government. German legislator Joana Cotar, a defender of cryptocurrencies, stated that these bitcoins should represent a “strategic reserve” for the future. Therefore, she called for a halt to a sale that she considered “pointless” and “contrary to purpose”.

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