Uncle Sam Lists Bitcoin For Sale: Should BTC Holders Be Concerned

by James · April 16, 2023

– The US government made plans to sell its BTC holdings within the next year.

– Markets may be affected temporarily due to these sales, but for now traders remain optimistic.

The US government has been very critical of the crypto space in recent months. The regulatory issues surrounding the space, coupled with fraud that has affected the general population, has made the US government more cynical about the cryptocurrency market and Bitcoin [BTC].

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USA to sell their BTC holdings

The cynicism is one reason why the US has decided to sell its BTC holdings. The government obtained these Bitcoins through three cases. They include the Mt.Gox scandal, the Bitfinex hack and the seizure of Bitcoin from James Zhong.

The US government now only has 41,491 BTC as some were sold earlier this year on March 14th. The remaining coins will go through a sale in four lots later in the year.

In accordance Maartunn, a market viewer with CryptoQuant, if we divide the number of days in a year by the number of batches, we get 73 days. Interestingly, the first batch was sold on day 73 of 2023.

If a sales pattern arise from the US authorities, we can see sales of the remaining lots every 73 days. And this could have a negative short-term impact on BTC prices, allowing short sellers to potentially make money.

Source: CryptoQuant

Traders, however, showed no bearish behavior at press time. Glassnode’s data further revealed that even with the rising prices, the put-to-call ratio for Bitcoin has fallen. This suggests that there are more call options than sell options on exchanges at press time.

In addition, an increase in the number of call options also suggests a belief among traders that Bitcoin’s price will continue to rise.

Source: Glassnode

Some “My” problems

Although traders were observed to be optimistic about Bitcoin’s future, the same could not be said for the miners. In accordance Glassnode’s data, the Miner Outflow Multiple has reached a 1-month high. This indicates that miners have sold most of the BTC they mine.

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Also, the plunge in fees earned by miners is a contributing factor to this situation. Data from Blockchain.com shows that the total fees generated from transactions have dropped from $1.2 million to $653,210 in recent weeks.

It remains to be seen whether increasing selling pressure on miners will have a significant impact on BTC’s prices going forward.