Germany Selling of 49,858 BTC Cost them Huge Profits

[Faisal2202]

I know the news is very old about Germany selling 50k BTC, and this forum was full of such news, as most of us were in confusion about why they planned to sell these BTC when they could sell them at peak. So now we have seen BTC setting an ATH of $93,477, and Germany sold around 49,858 BTC at an average price of $53k. So they made a total of 2,642,454,000 USD back in July or August. If they had waited 2 to 3 months more, they would have been making $1.84 billion USD extra in profit if sold at $90k.

Timing peak and exiting at the right moment is not possible for everyone but at least they could have given it a second opinion Although I am no one to judge their decision, it's their loss  But they could have made more profit don't get what's the hurry to sell them.

[Finestream]

They probably didn’t see this moment coming, or maybe they were already content with that price. What if no bull run had happened? They still wouldn’t have been able to sell, and that could’ve been money in the bank for them. Plus, they don’t really care much about that as they don’t have an investor’s mindset when it comes to those bitcoins since they were just seized back in January 2024.

German police claim largest Bitcoin seizure ever — more than $2 billion recovered in ongoing video piracy investigation

German police confiscated over $2 billion worth of Bitcoins (BTC) during investigations into the movie2k.to pirate movie streaming site, according to a report from Der Speigel. This is the largest-ever currency seizure by German law enforcement according to Germany’s State Criminal Police Office (LKA).

According to the Der Speigel report, 50,000 Bitcoins were secured by police in Saxony during the investigation of two men (aged 40 and 37) suspected of running a German portal for movie2k.to through May 2013 and squirreling away their profits as cryptocurrency. Remember — at that time, 50,000 BTC wasn’t worth anywhere near the $2 billion+ it is now. In 2013 BTC started the year valued at $13 and ended at about $750. If we say the funds were converted to BTC at a value of around $500, the 50,000 Bitcoins would have represented about $25 million in hidden loot.

[Alpha Marine]

They did not buy any of those bitcoins. All those bitcoins were seized and they got them for free so whatever price they sold them for would be profit. They're not in the business of making a profit out of the sales. If they wanted a profit they would not have sold everything off at once.
It's not their loss, it's actually their profit. They got the BTC for free and made millions of dollars out of it.
Selling when they did must have been something that have been discussed way earlier and that was only a predetermined date irrespective of the price of bitcoin.

[avikz]

I know the news is very old about Germany selling 50k BTC, and this forum was full of such news, as most of us were in confusion about why they planned to sell these BTC when they could sell them at peak. So now we have seen BTC setting an ATH of $93,477, and Germany sold around 49,858 BTC at an average price of $53k. So they made a total of 2,642,454,000 USD back in July or August. If they had waited 2 to 3 months more, they would have been making $1.84 billion USD extra in profit if sold at $90k.

Timing peak and exiting at the right moment is not possible for everyone but at least they could have given it a second opinion Although I am no one to judge their decision, it's their loss  But they could have made more profit don't get what's the hurry to sell them.

If I am not wrong, I believe German government had confisticated those Bitcoins. So it was not an investment for the government. So I believe the y cannot hold it for longer period just to make profit out of this. That's why they had to sell of their holdings to recover the money. There was no speculation at all.

That's how usually happens in such scenarios. The enforcement authorities are bound to sell of the criminal proceeds in a time bound manner as directed by the court. I think that is what happened here!

[tbct_mt2]

I know the news is very old about Germany selling 50k BTC, and this forum was full of such news, as most of us were in confusion about why they planned to sell these BTC when they could sell them at peak. So now we have seen BTC setting an ATH of $93,477, and Germany sold around 49,858 BTC at an average price of $53k.

Remember that German government is not Bitcoin investor. They simply do their job which does not require them to time the market and find the ATH in this market cycle to sell bitcoins. I don't think German government are regretful about their sale months ago, they did it and completed their job with these bitcoin.

Timing peak and exiting at the right moment is not possible for everyone but at least they could have given it a second opinion Although I am no one to judge their decision, it's their loss  But they could have made more profit don't get what's the hurry to sell them.

If you are an investor or trader, you will try to find ATH, take profit with your bitcoin but government has many other things to do, and their government works by money from their citizens as tax payers. They don't work with money from seized bitcoin at any price of bitcoin on the market.

How German government got these bitcoins defines how they treat these bitcoins. If they invest their national treasury in Bitcoin, like El Salvador or Bhutan, their action would be very different.

[Helena Yu]

If they had waited 2 to 3 months more, they would have been making $1.84 billion USD extra in profit if sold at $90k.

And then in the next year you will say they're made mistake to not hold until the next year, because they would have been earn $x if they sold at $x.

AFAIK there was no news where Germany bought Bitcoin, all the articles only said they're own Bitcoin, which mean high likely they own it by seizing criminal funds. Germany should be happy because they made 2,642 Billion Euros profit without any risk and cost to bought it.

[Faisal2202]

They did not buy any of those bitcoins. All those bitcoins were seized and they got them for free so whatever price they sold them for would be profit. They're not in the business of making a profit out of the sales. If they wanted a profit they would not have sold everything off at once.
It's not their loss, it's actually their profit. They got the BTC for free and made millions of dollars out of it.
Selling when they did must have been something that have been discussed way earlier and that was only a predetermined date irrespective of the price of bitcoin.

That's a good point, they seized them, so at whatever price they sold them, it's a total profit, and they can use that money for any development. So considering your bolded line, do you think the USA wants to make a profit as they are not selling the seized BTC yet, although they have plans to sell BTC seized from Silk Road?

I know it's not their loss, but extra profit won't do them any harm yeah. Just thinking what emergency forced them to sell all at such price.

[Pi-network314159]

I know the news is very old about Germany selling 50k BTC, and this forum was full of such news, as most of us were in confusion about why they planned to sell these BTC when they could sell them at peak. So now we have seen BTC setting an ATH of $93,477, and Germany sold around 49,858 BTC at an average price of $53k. So they made a total of 2,642,454,000 USD back in July or August. If they had waited 2 to 3 months more, they would have been making $1.84 billion USD extra in profit if sold at $90k.

Timing peak and exiting at the right moment is not possible for everyone but at least they could have given it a second opinion Although I am no one to judge their decision, it's their loss   But they could have made more profit don't get what's the hurry to sell them.

Like you said earlier, that you are no one to judge their decision,  that is actually right. Even as we want to HODL bitcoin for long doesn't mean we will HODl for dear life. Each of us has our target, our selling point may not be profitable as we thought but do you also know that bitcoin ATH now is not the highest ATH that will ever exist? Definitely there will be ATH upon ATH continuously 100years from now. If we keep thinking about that, we would not be able to sell our HODLings because new ATH is endless. What if bitcoin hit $200k  now, you will also regret selling at $93k and when bitcoin hit $500k, people who sold @$200k will also regret. So sometimes there is no need to regret if the owner of bitcoin decided to sell in his final stage. It could be that Germany bought there bitcoin when it was way cheaper than now, so it's up to them since it's a collective idea and a public bitcoin reserve, opinion would have arise to selling it compeard to a single entity.

[Alpha Marine]

So considering your bolded line, do you think the USA wants to make a profit as they are not selling the seized BTC yet, although they have plans to sell BTC seized from Silk Road?

These things are decisions that are taken over time. There's a lot of deliberations. I read somewhere that some victims of the Silk Road hack will receive remunerated. I also read that the family will be able to keep proceeds that were gotten legally. My point is, it's not always black and white. From the outside, we can't know why the German government sold when they sold, but like I said it's a decision that has been properly deliberated and the dates have been predetermined. The same with the US. We can't know why they haven't sold off the bitcoin they got from seizures but I doubt profit is what they primarily look for.

[Nwada001]

I know the news is very old about Germany selling 50k BTC, and this forum was full of such news, as most of us were in confusion about why they planned to sell these BTC when they could sell them at peak. So now we have seen BTC setting an ATH of $93,477, and Germany sold around 49,858 BTC at an average price of $53k. So they made a total of 2,642,454,000 USD back in July or August. If they had waited 2 to 3 months more, they would have been making $1.84 billion USD extra in profit if sold at $90k.

Germany as a country is among the top 10 richest countries with large economies. They should be on the level of 3rd-4th place as of the 2023 record. Do you think this amount is what they really care about? 
 
On the other hand, those seized bitcoins that were sold out were not federal seized funds; it was a small state inside Germany, "Saxony," that sold out their holdings, which were captured through the seizure process. They don't really care about the profit, like I stated here in my local board. 

[Cookdata]

Timing peak and exiting at the right moment is not possible for everyone but at least they could have given it a second opinion Although I am no one to judge their decision, it's their loss  But they could have made more profit don't get what's the hurry to sell them.

Still better than someone that sold 10k Bitcoin for a slice of pizza. I think they made their own choice and you know, there could be 1000 more reason why they sold. It's a government wallet and not an individual that will say they can make their own decision, it possible there was too much pressure and who ever is responsible for the private key can't say know if the political chamber directed them to sell. They didn't bought those Bitcoin, it was seized, so they know nothing about the pain of buying and holding.

Had it been the wallet is an individual wallet, such person cannot be so ignorance of holding, they have sold and it's now a good bye. As a government, they can genere 10x of that amount in days I think, let's focus on our own and hopefully we don't dump back to where we think they sold off or even lower because there are good days and there is also bad days in Bitcoin, dint forget that.

[Lucius]

~snip~
If they had waited 2 to 3 months more, they would have been making $1.84 billion USD extra in profit if sold at $90k.

People are still spinning the same story that Germany sold some Bitcoins, when in fact it was about the fact that these BTCs legally belonged to one of their provinces (Saxony) considering that they were confiscated in their territory. As far as I know, there wasn't much of a choice about whether to keep them or sell them, because by law they had to do so.

It may seem to you that $1 or $2 billion is a lot, but Germany's budget for 2024 is approximately EUR 445 billion - it's not like waiting would help them much financially.

[EL MOHA]

Still better than someone that sold 10k Bitcoin for a slice of pizza. I think they made their own choice and you know, there could be 1000 more reason why they sold. It's a government wallet and not an individual that will say they can make their own decision, it possible there was too much pressure and who ever is responsible for the private key can't say know if the political chamber directed them to sell. They didn't bought those Bitcoin, it was seized, so they know nothing about the pain of buying and holding.

In as much as Laszlo might actually be regretting buying the most expensive Pizza in the world I think he should be celebrated for kick starting what was to be a monetary revolution. For the German liquidation of the bitcoin I don’t under stand why people still question this because to me it was something clear, this was a confiscated asset and they are not allowed to hold them for long if I am correct and selling off was the right thing, this is even expensive compared to assets been auctioned.

Had it been the wallet is an individual wallet, such person cannot be so ignorance of holding, they have sold and it's now a good bye. As a government, they can genere 10x of that amount in days I think, let's focus on our own and hopefully we don't dump back to where we think they sold off or even lower because there are good days and there is also bad days in Bitcoin, dint forget that.

I read a lot of threads about investors having to hold for particular time whenever the Market is pumping like right now but people just fail to understand that the hardest part of investing is holding and to me I am never against selling at ones will except you’re selling at a loss. A profit taking is better than unrealized profits no matter the price difference. It is not a must to have diamond hand when you can actually save yourself some financial troubles

[retreat]

-snip-

Although I am no one to judge their decision, it's their loss  But they could have made more profit don't get what's the hurry to sell them.

They would have been able to make a profit if they had sold at any price, because they had never invested in the Bitcoin in the first place, it was confiscated and sooner or later they would have sold it anyway, so there was no loss in this - and also no one knew that in a few months the price of Bitcoin would be like it is now, so it was not their fault and I am sure they would not regret it either.

[sunsilk]

I know the news is very old about Germany selling 50k BTC, and this forum was full of such news, as most of us were in confusion about why they planned to sell these BTC when they could sell them at peak. So now we have seen BTC setting an ATH of $93,477, and Germany sold around 49,858 BTC at an average price of $53k. So they made a total of 2,642,454,000 USD back in July or August. If they had waited 2 to 3 months more, they would have been making $1.84 billion USD extra in profit if sold at $90k.

What's done is done and they have probably something for it already planned on how they're going to spend that funding their own projects.

Timing peak and exiting at the right moment is not possible for everyone but at least they could have given it a second opinion Although I am no one to judge their decision, it's their loss  But they could have made more profit don't get what's the hurry to sell them.

Although they're on profit and just like us, we have regret if we calculate how much profit should be in us if we do sell at the right time. It's true that they have missed additional profits if they have waited any longer.

But that's them, it's not a mistake on their end when they have made billions of dollars already with that sale they've made.

[headingnorth]

How do you say lettuce hands in German?

When they were selling at $53K I was buying heavily at that very same time so thanks Germany for the cheap sats!

[logfiles]

It wasn't their Bitcoins to begin with, as they just seized it. It's not like they bought it at some point using the Government money and then sold off later for profits. Your post would make sense if the latter was the case.

[Bitcoinpro]

Its still pocket change to them, and look at the United States they are printing 10 Billion dollars per day.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

They probably didn’t see this moment coming <...>

Of course not, as no politician with power in the EU, as they are more concerned with implementing CBDCs. The only thing they think about cryptocurrencies is how to control and tax them. Now if, as it looks like it is going to happen, the USA implements a strategic reserve, they will have to think about copying them, as is often the case. The whole issue of innovation in terms of cryptocurrency and AI companies is going to be done in the USA, as happened with the big internet companies (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Tesla, Facebook and Nvidia).

[icalical]

German's Bitcoin decision however, as far as I know, was not all about profitability. German law requires seized assets in criminal cases to be sold to prevent heavy losses from market fluctuation, like what happened with Movie2K. At the time of their sale, Bitcoin was already up from $43k to $53k, raking in $2.86 billion, a good return on paper given the risk of holding a highly volatile asset.

Timing the market is always tricky, but with Bitcoin's wild swings, it's a little like trying to time a roulette spin. Even less often do institutional investors sell at the very peak. Holding out for better prices also wasn't a straightforward option considering legal and procedural prerequisites surrounding such a sale. This lesson here is less about "missing out" and more about understanding trade offs involved with large, volatile holdings.