Justin Sun Offers to Buy $2 Billion in Bitcoin From Germany to 'Minimize' Market Impact

By Stacy Elliott

Controversial Tron founder Justin Sun has offered to buy the remaining $2.3 billion Bitcoin that was seized by the German government and appears bound for exchanges to be sold at market prices.

Earlier today, Germany's movement of $75 million worth of BTC to exchanges caused markets to plummet. The move followed several other similar transfers by the German government over the last two weeks, totaling hundreds of millions in Bitcoin. At the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin has fallen to $56,892.53—down 5% since this time yesterday and 7% lower than it was just a week ago, according to CoinGecko data.

"I am willing to negotiate with the German government to purchase all BTC off-market in order to minimize the impact on the market," Sun wrote on Twitter Thursday afternoon.

It's unclear just how serious Sun is about buying $2.3 billion worth of BTC or whether he's reached out over any official channels. The Tron founder has a history of attempting to play hero, or at least publicly appearing to be doing so, whenever the crypto market may be in peril. Neither Sun nor the German Bundeskriminalamt, or Federal Criminal Police Office, immediately responded to Decrypt's request for comment.

For what it's worth, the crypto wallet that blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence has linked to Sun has just over $1 billion worth of funds in it. Unsurprisingly, the Crypto Twitter community has rallied behind the suggestion—however serious or unserious—that there are better ways for law enforcement to sell its seized assets.

There have been a few offers to chip in $20, people volunteering to babysit the negotiations, and a handful of low market cap coins copying his tweet and using it to promote their own project.

There have also been a lot of memes, naturally.

According to Arkham Intelligence, just one of the five wallets that's been linked to the German BKA has already sent at least $300 million off to be sold.

That includes $94 million worth of Bitcoin to Coinbase, $84 million to Kraken, and $91 million to Bitstamp. The same wallet, which currently contains $2.3 billion worth of Bitcoin, has also sent $44 million to Amsterdam-based market maker Flow Traders.

When Germany initially seized the $2.1 billion Bitcoin in late January, Bitcoin was trading for just above $46,000 at the time. In March, when BTC reached a new all-time high above $73,000, the balance of the wallet soared to $3.6 billion. The 50,000 Bitcoin balance in the wallet remained steady all the way through mid-June before the first outflow hit markets on June 20.

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