The German government has earned 2.88 billion USD (equivalent to 2.6 billion Euro) from the sale of nearly 50,000 Bitcoins confiscated from the pirated XEM website Movie2K.
According to an announcement from German authorities, nearly 50,000 Bitcoins were successfully sold between June 19, 2024 and July 12, 2024, bringing the national budget 2.88 billion USD. Bitcoin sales are supported and coordinated by the German Federal Criminal Police Office.
This Bitcoin was seized from Movie2K, a notorious pirated movie XEM website that has since ceased operations. Although the Movie2K case is not yet over, German authorities said they were forced to sell these Bitcoins due to concerns about the risk of devaluation.
According to German law, the sale of valuable assets before the conclusion of an ongoing criminal case is mandatory if there is a risk of a significant loss of value, around 10% or more.
To carry out this large-scale Bitcoin sale, Germany partnered with many major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bitstamp , Kraken , and Coinbase. Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain data analysis company, has been closely monitoring the German government's cryptocurrency wallet and noted the wallet balance reached zero last Friday.
The sale of seized Bitcoin by the German government shows a growing trend among law enforcement agencies globally to liquidate confiscated electronic assets. This also raises questions about how governments will manage and handle digital assets in the future.
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