Did German Authorities Cause The Current Bitcoin (BTC) Crash By Selling Seized BTC? 10

Did German Authorities Cause The Current Bitcoin (BTC) Crash By Selling Seized BTC?

News reaching Ethereum World News indicate that there was a mass liquidation of seized cryptocurrencies by German Authorities in the last two months and starting on February 20th. The seize crypto included 1,312 Bitcoins (BTC), 1,399 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) coins, 1,312 Bitcoin Gold (BTG) coins and 220 Ethereum (ETH).

Investigating the date the sale of the cryptocurrencies was order by the judge, we find that Bitcoin was valued at $11,732 according to coinmarketcap.com. At that price, the amount of Bitcoin to be sold was valued at $15,392,384. Bitcoin Cash was valued at $1,530 on February 20th indicating the value of BCH to be sold was worth $2,140,470. Analyzing the Bitcoin Gold to be sold, this amount of coins was valued at $183,680 on the same date with the ETH to be sold, being worth $206,800.

Adding it all up, we find that the total value of the seized cryptocurrencies on that day in February, was $17,923,334 with BTC being 85.8% of this value.

Also looking at the charts from that day in February, one begins to see a series of downtrends beginning on the 20th of February. The report also adds that the sale took part in two months and in approximately 1,600 individual transactions. The authorities managed to raise approximately $14 Million from the sale of the cryptocurrencies.

Did German Authorities Cause The Current Bitcoin (BTC) Crash By Selling Seized BTC? 11
Bitcoin Chart from 20th Feb

Now the big question is, can this amount of BTC being sold over time affect the crypto market?

The way the crypto-market behaves, is that any slight indication of panic selling can trigger a domino effect that might last for quite some time. Any additional FUD will most definitely cause continual depreciation in the crypto markets.

One also has to remember that there were reports of over $140 Million in BTC being sold by the Mt. Gox trustee back in late April. Therefore, if both sales of BTC were ongoing at the same time, then it is highly probable that their joint actions could have contributed to the decline that we are seeing today. The sale by the German authorities might have started the downtrend, with the Mt. Gox news pushing it further.

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to give financial advice. The opinion herein should be taken as is. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the numerous cryptocurrencies available.

[Photo source, Bloomberg.com]