Bitcoin, Ether Reverse Losses as Germany Gets Back $200M BTC From Exchanges

Bitcoin (BTC) led a crypto market recovery early Tuesday as a German government entity received over $200 million worth of the asset back from various exchanges in late U.S. hours, helping revive sentiment.
Bitcoin was trading just over $57,300 in Asian morning hours, up 3.5% over the past 24 hours, while major tokens such as Solana’s SOL jumped as much as 6%. Ether (ETH) climbed back above $3,000, while dogecoin (DOGE) was up nearly 7%.
On Monday, BTC dropped to as low as $55,000 shortly after an address belonging to the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) sent over $900 million to various addresses, spooking traders.
But the entity received over $200 million from Kraken, Coinbase and Bitstamp back in the past 12 hours, Arkham data shows, indicating that while the assets were sent to these exchanges, they ultimately did not hit the market.
The BKA had seized almost 50,000 BTC in 2013, worth over $2 billion at the time, from the operators of Movie2k.to, a film piracy website. It received the asset in mid-January after a ‘voluntary transfer’ from the suspects, as previously reported.
Edited by Parikshit Mishra.
Disclosure
Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.
Shaurya is the Deputy Managing Editor for the Data & Tokens team, focusing on decentralized finance, markets, on-chain data, and governance across all major and minor blockchains.