US gov’t Bitcoin sale ‘doesn’t affect anything’ as analyst blames bears

Governments divesting themselves of their BTC is a non-event, but Bitcoin bears make sure that the market feels the heat regardless, analysis says.

Bitcoin dropped further on Aug. 15 as a new United States government BTC transfer added to selling pressure.

Bitcoin sellers “dumping” fuels sell-off narrative

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked multiday lows of $57,816 for Bitcoin (BTC).

The largest cryptocurrency reacted badly to the US government’s largest shipment of confiscated coins year-to-date, totaling 10,000 BTC ($581 million) and heading to exchange Coinbase, according to data from crypto intelligence firm Arkham.

The event canceled out any relief over US macroeconomic changes, with a cool Consumer Price Index (CPI) print failing to boost BTC price performance.

Reviewing the events, the analytics platform Lookonchain showed copycat market reactions to US government transfers throughout 2024.

“The USGovernment transferred 15,940 $BTC($966.4M) to CoinbasePrime in three transactions this year,” it wrote in a post on X.

“Within three days of the first two transfers, the price of $BTC both dropped by ~5%.”

Axel Adler, a contributor to the onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, suggested that large market players had dictated the risk-off reaction to the latest transfer by “selling the news.”

“Every time Arkham tweets about coin movements, bears instantly start dumping the market,” he asserted.

“10K BTC from a US Government doesn’t affect anything, but the mere fact causes such a reaction.”

States pay the price for refusing to hodl BTC

As Cointelegraph reported, recent months have been marked by short-term bearish narratives involving nation-states offloading seized BTC holdings.

Related: 45% of Bitcoin supply has not moved in 6 months — Research

In addition to the US, Germany has sold its entire tranche, with Arkham’s tagged wallet now containing just 0.007 BTC ($400).

Offloading took place through June and July, with the balance before the move being worth some $3.5 billion. Within a week of the final sale, Germany had already lost out on $124 million in profits.

“This will go down in history as one of the biggest mistakes a nation could make,” popular social media commentator and YouTuber Quinten predicted at the time.

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