About 50,000 Bitcoins (BTC) worth more than $2 billion were seized by German authorities this January. This came after an ongoing investigation into a film piracy site.
Like for example inform According to the official website of the Saxon police, the investigation in Germany was supported by the FBI and a forensic computer company based in Munich. The focus was on two men who sold pirated films on a website called Movie2K.
The pirate portal had become popular in German-speaking countries. Due to legal problems, the site was closed in early 2013. Due to this irregular situation, the authorities announced confiscation for 2020 of $29.7 million in Bitcoins which were in the hands of the site operators.
It was then learned that the administrators were using the portal to make sales and receive payments in fiat. They then used the money to invest in cryptocurrencies. For this reason, it was assumed that more money was involved in the case.
With the confiscation of another 50,000 Bitcoins, the suspicion has now been confirmed. A quantity that the subjects had accumulated in this and that year voluntarily handed over to the police.
In this way, they took advantage of one of the key features of digital currency: its long-term appreciation. Let's keep in mind that in 2013 the value of BTC was about $13 per unit, a value significantly lower than the current price.
The statement goes on to say that the people transferred the cryptocurrencies to wallets controlled by the Federal Criminal Police Office; Be now one of the largest seizures of its kind so far not only in Germany but worldwide.
Hence the authorities They assess the fate of the confiscated Bitcoins, as formal charges have not yet been brought against the portal administrators. The investigations are still ongoing.
This case is another example that illustrates a fact that is becoming increasingly common around the world. This involves dealing with cryptocurrencies that are confiscated during criminal investigations. A situation for many organisms they are not preparedas is happening in Europe in this case.
The situation is different in the USA, which is currently one of the countries with the most money for this concept. Calculations indicate that the US government It owns about 215,000 BTC, worth about $8.6 billion. That's what it does one of the whales that holds the most Bitcoins.
As CriptoNoticias reported, the Justice Department intends to offer about 3,000 BTC for sale in the coming months.