French authorities to auction seized bitcoins worth about $35 million

On March 17, the Agency for the Management and Return of Seized and Confiscated Assets (AGRASC) of the French Ministry of Justice will put up for auction about 611 BTC, valued at roughly $35 million, according to Cyberguerre.

According to the report, 610 BTC were seized from suspects in the hack of the British platform GateHub. In June 2019, the attackers withdrew 23 million XRP.

A few months later, law enforcement charged two French hackers. For Gabriel B., authorities seized more than 189 BTC, while his partner, who goes by the nickname Prosox, held about 90 BTC. Relatives of the suspects handed over another roughly 330 coins belonging to the defendants.

Since the case has not yet been concluded, legally the assets remain the suspects’ property, but prosecutors could decide to sell them due to a potential price drop, said Cyberguerre lawyer Reno Almeras.

In the event of an acquittal, the proceeds from the sale would go to the accused; if they are found guilty, the beneficiary would be the state. According to Almeras, the GateHub users harmed by the breach could thus expect compensation.

However, the report noted that the value of the stolen XRP has hardly changed since the incident. In June 2019 the loss stood at about $9.6 million. At the time of writing, the seized tokens were worth about $10.2 million.

The bitcoins seized from the hackers have appreciated by several times over this period, and even with compensation payments, the state will reap a multi-million-dollar windfall.

This is not the largest sum of bitcoins sold by law enforcement at auction. For example, in 2018 the U.S. Marshals Service auctioned 2,170.7 BTC. One bidder bought 2,100 coins.

In 2020 the agency sold more than 4,040 BTC through auctions. The assets went to two winners.

On March 15 the auction to sell 0.7501 BTC will start. The asset for sale was put up for auction by the U.S. General Services Administration.

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