By Dumping 50K Seized Bitcoins At The Wrong Time, Germany Lost An Amount Worth More Than Bhutan's And Gambia's GDPs Today

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After weeks of relentless selling, the German government sold off the final tranche of its Bitcoin BTC/USD holdings last Friday. Interestingly enough, the market unexpectedly rose immediately after.

What Happened: Nearly 50,000 Bitcoins recovered from asset seizures were dumped by the government in the last three weeks, exerting significant downside pressure on the price of the digital currency.  

Indeed the price struggled to break above $60,000 during this period, even plunging to a four-month low of $54,000. 

However, true to its unexpected nature, the market rebounded strongly a day after the German Government ran completely out of the asset. Since then, King Crypto has jumped 15%, breaking beyond $65,000.

Had the German government resisted selling their Bitcoin stash, it'd be worth $3.29 billion today. To put this figure in context, it exceeds Bhutan’s and Gambia’s GDPs, as per data from Trading Economics.

See Also: Peter Schiff Downplays Bitcoin, Hypes Gold’s Rise: ‘Wake Up And Smell The Bear Market’

Why It Matters: German lawmaker Joana Cotar had previously called the large-scale selling of state-owned Bitcoin “insensible and counterproductive.”

She argued that Bitcoin could be effectively used as a strategic reserve currency instead, as is being debated in many countries, including the U.S.

In fact, when the government liquidated all of its Bitcoin holdings, the Bundestag member mocked by saying, "Congratulations, you have to be that stupid to be able to do that."

In stark contrast, El Salvador has leaned toward a pro-Bitcoin policy since adopting the high-profile digital asset as legal tender in 2021. At the time of writing, El Salvador had 5,813.76 Bitcoins in its custody, worth nearly $380 million.

Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $65,814.40, up 3.56% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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Posted In: CryptocurrencyNewsMarketsBitcoinGerman GovernmentJoana Cotar
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