South Korea’s prosecution raised more than $10.8 million from the sale of assets seized from a convicted criminal in Bitcoin. The funds were deposited into the national budget, according to Arirang.
Authorities seized the bitcoins in 2017 from the operator of a pornography site. At the time, the seized cryptocurrency was worth about $238,000.
Because the country lacked legislation on confiscated digital assets, the authorities held onto the cryptocurrency for all this time, which had risen in value more than forty-fold.
The Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office said that the bitcoins were sold on an exchange immediately after the country’s new cryptocurrency regulation took effect on March 25.
Authorities noted that this is the first instance in South Korea where proceeds from criminal activity in a digital currency have flowed into the national budget.
As reported, the German prosecutors cannot access the confiscated 1,700 BTC (about $101 million) from several years ago due to the lack of a password to the wallet.