Bitcoin (BTC) price returned to $61,000 on June 26 as details emerged of an incoming BTC sale by the United States government.
BTC price contends with new state selling risk
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD struggling to hold the prior day’s gains after the Wall Street open.
Uncertain BTC price behavior came as news spread of coins from a wallet known to belong to the U.S. establishment were sent to exchange Coinbase.
According to data from crypto intelligence firm Arkham, the total involved was 3,940 BTC ($240 million).
“There's typically two options here,” popular trader Skew wrote in part of a reaction on X (formerly Twitter).
“- OTC desks can auction off the BTC to clients (off market buyers) - open market auction (sold over time on the market).”
Skew subsequently said that the market reaction had been comparatively subdued.
“Some shorts opening expecting supply to hit the market but other than that mostly longs closing out,” he commented about the status quo on order books.
The U.S. government wallet still contained more than 213,500 BTC ($13 billion) at the time of writing.
The move joined a similar one by Germany, which the week prior transferred 6,500 BTC from its wallet. 900 BTC was sold on June 25, Cointelegraph reported.
The timing of the combined sell-off did not escape the attention of market observers, with Travis Kling, head of crypto hedge fund Ikigai, describing it as “interesting.”
“Why are multiple governments selling their BTC? Starting to look co-ordinated…,” crypto entrepreneur Vinny Lingham added.
William Clemente, co-founder of crypto research firm Reflexivity, suggested that largescale distribution by Bitcoin whales in recent weeks could have occurred with the government moves in mind.
"My guess is a lot of recent selling over last few weeks was whales frontrunning these selling headlines & explains crypto's relative weakness to stocks," he told X subscribers.
"I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but if Germany/US/Gox are all selling/telegraphing selling, who's on the other end buying?"
Bitcoin ETFs break 7-day losing streak
A glance at the latest U.S. institutional flows showed June 25 finishing with a modest increase for the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Related: Bitcoin price must end June above $56.5K to defend uptrend — Analysis
These managed to attract $31 million, marking the first aggregate day of inflows since June 12, per data from sources including United Kingdom-based investment firm Farside Investors.
Popular trader Daan Crypto Trades preempted the positive result the day prior, noting strong time-weighted average price, or TWAP, purchasing at Coinbase.
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