The German government continued to move Bitcoin from its holdings to crypto exchanges Monday morning, transferring BTC worth over $28 million to Coinbase and Bitstamp.

Addresses linked to the German government by crypto analytics firm Arkham moved 250 BTC each to Coinbase and Bitstamp. A further 500 BTC worth $28 million was also sent to an unidentified address.

Per an Arkham Intelligence dashboard, the German government’s Bitcoin holdings amount to 38,826 BTC seized as a result of criminal cases, worth over $2.23 billion at current prices. The bulk of its holdings were seized in January as the result of a piracy sting, when Bitcoin was trading at around $46,000.

In recent days, the German government has been offloading its Bitcoin through crypto exchanges, prompting the price of Bitcoin to plunge to lows of under $55,000 and wreaking havoc on the wider crypto markets. At time of publication, the price of Bitcoin has recovered to around $57,590, trading flat on the day.

Over the weekend, an independent Member of the Bundestag, Joana Cotar, accused the German government of having “no strategy” for dealing with Bitcoin, arguing that, “I’m not at all sure whether the government was or is aware of the consequences of its sales.”

Others have seized the opportunity presented by Germany’s Bitcoin sales, with controversial Tron founder Justin Sun making a public offer to buy the German government’s remaining BTC holdings in order to “minimize the impact on the market.”

Bitcoin selling pressure

Analysts told Decrypt that selling pressure on Bitcoin would be unlikely to decrease in the coming days, with Germany’s sell-off over the past week compounded by the transfer of funds from the bankruptcy estate of defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox.

Mt. Gox users are awaiting restitution of up to $7.7 billion in funds lost due to a hack more than 10 years ago, with repayments expected to kick off in July.

“Foolishly, the German Government has transferred more than $390 million worth of BTC to exchanges over the past few weeks to be sold for fiat currency. From a geopolitical perspective, it is a strategic blunder for any nation-state to sell bitcoin holdings for fiat currency given that they can simply print the latter out of thin air,” the July 5 edition of the Blockware Intelligence newsletter said.

The first week of July introduced bearish pressure, leading to massive losses in the crypto market. Bitcoin (BTC) led the downtrend, as it consistently recorded lower lows amid sustained selling pressure.

Notably, the rest of the market experienced similar losses. Consequently, the global crypto market cap lost $140 billion, as it dropped further to $2.11 trillion, its lowest level since late February. While most assets remained down, a few witnessed remarkable recoveries.

Here are our top picks for cryptocurrencies to watch this week following their noteworthy performances during the downtrend last week:

Bitcoin drops to 5-month low

Bitcoin’s start to the week was mildly bullish following a consolidation phase two weeks back. However, bearish pressure emerged as the leading crypto asset maintained a divergence from U.S. equities, currently in their bullish stage.

BTC was subjected to its toughest bearish selling pressure this year, as bankrupt exchange Mt. Gox began creditor repayments, the German government distributed thousands of BTC tokens, new holders began selling off their assets and miners showed signs of capitulation.

Last week alone, Bitcoin gave up multiple psychological thresholds from $63,000 to $58,000. The asset slumped to a 5-month low of $53,485 on July 5 but immediately rebounded from this position. Despite the mild recovery, BTC ended last week with a 4.5% drop, slightly above $58,000.

At press time, the asset has again forfeited the $58,000 threshold amid an additional 1.13% drop. Nonetheless, it has maintained a position above the lower Bollinger Band ($56,347). Bitcoin’s hopes of a full recovery hinge on its ability to reclaim the 20-day SMA ($61,509) and the upper Bollinger Band ($66,676).

LTC slumps 12%

Litecoin (LTC) was one of the numerous victims of last week’s market collapse. The asset showed resilience at the start of the week, largely consolidating from June 30 to July 2. 

However, as pressure mounted, LTC recorded three consecutive intraday losses from July 3 to 5, dropping 18.6% within this period. When the market staged a mild rebound on July 6, LTC gained 5.72% but closed the week with a 12.7% loss. 

Litecoin’s MACD line crossed below the Signal line on July 4, confirming the bearish momentum. 

With both lines currently sloping downward, this suggests the bearish momentum is increasing. LTC needs to decisively close above Fib. 0.236 ($64.60) to mount a formidable defense against any more declines this week.

TRX bucks the trend, hits 4-month high

Tron (TRX) was one of the few assets that bucked the overall bearish trend last week.

TRX started the week with an indecisive bearing, but eventually increased 3.5% over four days to $0.12997 on July 3, looking to recover the $0.13 territory. The last time Tron saw this level was on March 13.

The retest of the $0.13 region coincided with the widespread drop in the market. Tron crashed 6.7% to a low of $0.12117 on July 5, but immediately rebounded.

A recovery push on July 6 helped it reclaim the bullish momentum, leading to a four-month high of $0.13028. Tron closed last week with a 3.5% increase.