Russia is setting the stage to sell Bitcoin seized from criminal activities, a move that recalls Germany’s past missteps in crypto liquidation. Crypto Rover reported the development, potentially setting off ripples in Bitcoin’s supply dynamics and market mood.
The announcement on April 2, 2025, triggered an immediate, albeit slight, market reaction. Bitcoin dipped to $65,210.50 within an hour after trading at $65,432.10 across major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase. Trading volume spiked 15%, hitting 23,456 BTC, as noted by CoinGecko, while active addresses jumped 7% to 987,654, according to Glassnode.
The specter of Russia unloading seized BTC is fueling selling pressure. Drawing parallels with Germany’s crypto handling might offer a preview, where similar sales resulted in a 5% price slump over a week, Bloomberg reported in 2024. Volumes for the BTC/USD pair also saw a 3% jump to 12,345 BTC within two hours on Bitstamp. Investor anxiety ratcheted up, sending the Crypto Fear & Greed Index down from 65 to 58, as tracked by Alternative.me. Ethereum also felt the chill, dropping 2% to $3,210.50, though trading volume climbed 10% to 15,678 ETH.
Technical indicators are flashing caution. TradingView data points to a bearish divergence, with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) sliding from 60 to 52. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is also signaling a bearish crossover. Binance saw BTC/USDT volumes surge to 25,678 BTC in three hours, a 20% spike. On-chain, transaction volumes rose 10% to 1,234,567 BTC, according to Blockchain.com.
Despite the broad market focus on Bitcoin, SingularityNET (AGIX) saw a 5% price increase to $0.85, while Fetch.AI (FET) experienced a 3% rise to $1.20. AGIX trading volume increased by 8% to 1,234,567 AGIX, and FET saw a 6% volume increase to 987,654 FET. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index for AI tokens remained steady at 70.