Bitcoin’s price action remained choppy this week. Its recovery to $69,000 remained brief after a massive plunge below $65,000. Nonetheless, the resurgence has sparked significant discussion within the community.

The drop is largely attributed to the US government’s move to sell its BTC stash from the Silk Road seizure, with plans for four more similar sell-offs in 2024 causing significant concern among traders. However, historical data suggest that markets typically move in the opposite direction of the crowd’s expectation.

Bitcoin Traders on Edge

According to Santiment, many attribute the recent drop to the revelation by US government authorities of their sale of nearly 10,000 BTC from the Silk Road seizure. This triggered apprehension among traders, exacerbated by the anticipation of four more sizable sell-offs throughout 2024.

Santiment’s analysis, however, highlighted a notable trend – spikes in crowd interest surrounding the Silk Road correspond with subsequent market upswings.

This phenomenon suggests a contrarian indicator, where market movements often diverge from prevailing sentiment. As such, the on-chain analytic firm suggests that if fear persists, further price increases in the crypto market could be expected.

📈 #Bitcoin has bounced all the way back above $69K after dropping below $65K just two days ago. The culprit of the fall, according to most of the #crypto community, is attributed to the U.S. government authorities’ admission to selling nearly 10,000 $BTC from the #silkroad… pic.twitter.com/PiCrZo2YaI

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) April 4, 2024

Silk Road’s Seized Bitcoins Sale

Earlier this week, a wallet identified as affiliated with the US government transferred a massive portion of its BTC stash.

The authorities’ previous confirmed sale occurred in March 2023, where they disposed of 9,861 BTC from a pool of roughly 50,000 seized in late 2022 related to the dark web marketplace, yielding $216 million.

Of the recently moved Bitcoin, around 2,000 were sent to a wallet linked to Coinbase, while the remaining portion was transferred to another wallet identified by Arkham Intelligence as government-owned.

The primary wallet address connected to the US authorities currently holds 29,799 BTC worth around $1.98 billion.