The auction of seized bitcoins drew a surge of buyers to the German authorities at below-market prices, according to Bloomberg.
The Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia announced the sale of the first cryptocurrency for an eight-figure euro amount. According to the publication, over a few days the online auction platform registered 4,000 new users.
The authorities listed the cryptocurrency in several lots—from 0.1 BTC to 10 BTC. The starting price was set at €42 400 per coin.
The auction began on Monday, 25 October, at noon local time. Bidding will last 48 hours.
As of writing, the bid for the 1 BTC lot stands at €52 010. According to CoinGecko, the volume-weighted average price for digital gold on exchanges exceeds €54 625.
For 10 BTC, a bidder offered €503 510. The smaller denominations of 0.1 BTC, participants are willing to buy even at prices above the market rate in the range of €5 600-€5 670 per tenth of the coin.
The cryptocurrency is stored in prosecutors’ wallets; the auction winners will be able to receive private keys to them in printed form at the agency. If the buyer wishes, BTC can be transferred to their wallet after identity verification via video link. The recipient will have to pay the transaction fee.
The prosecutor’s office is not empowered to simply sell the digital gold on the market. It must offer them at auction, like any other confiscated good. According to the statement, the cryptocurrency was seized in cybercrime cases, largely on the dark net.
“Every euro obtained from criminal networks weakens them,” the Ministry of Justice stressed.
As reported in 2020, the German police confiscated bitcoins worth €25 million from operators of an illegal streaming site.
In 2021, the country’s prosecutors admitted that for several years they have been unable to access 1,700 BTC seized from a person convicted of fraud.