During a review of an old criminal case involving a major pirate website, German police seized nearly 50,000 BTC (valued at $2.17 billion at the time of writing), acquired through illegal activities.
According to the investigation, in 2013, two administrators of the portal profited from the unauthorized commercial use of copyrighted works. The platform was shut down by court order, but it was revealed that the illicit proceeds were laundered, including through the first cryptocurrency.
One of the individuals involved voluntarily transferred the coins to wallets of the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany as part of a cooperation agreement.
This confiscation of digital assets marks the largest in the country’s history.
The investigation, involving the Leipzig Tax Office, is ongoing, and no charges have been filed against the men.
No decision has been made regarding the future use of the bitcoins.
Earlier in late 2023, German police seized servers of the darknet marketplace Kingdom Market located in several countries and halted its operations.