Dutch investigative services have seized non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for the very first time. The police in the eastern Netherlands recently seized multiple cryptocurrencies as well as multiple NFTs, reporting on March 30:
NFTs are a type of crypto where each token is unique. This makes it possible to link them on the blockchain to, for example, works of art, so that the token serves as a kind of digital proof of ownership. The police say:
“Because NFTs represent a value, they can be taken as the proceeds of criminal offenses, as is normally the case with expensive cars or large sums of cash.”
Investigation into trade in private data
The seizure is the result of an investigation by the cybercrime team of the East Netherlands into the trade in private data. This led to the arrest of a 23-year-old man from Weesp and a 19-year-old man from Hilversum.
The police found the pair via a chat service and arrested them at their home. They are suspected of large-scale trade in private data that is used in various forms of fraud.
Unknown which crypto and NFTs
Police have not disclosed which crypto has been seized and how much. The police do not report which NFTs have been seized, except that they mainly concern digital works of art. The police also do not want to say what value they may have:
“If the judge decides that we can auction them, then it will become clear what they will yield. Now we don’t dare to estimate that because the value fluctuates strongly.”
It is also unknown how the seizure took place. It is expected that the police gained access to the wallets of the suspects through a judicial authorization.
This is not the first time that an NFT has been seized in the Netherlands. A month ago, Crypto Insiders reported that a Dutch judge had granted leave to seize an NFT. Shortly before that, it was revealed that NFTs had been seized for the first time in the United Kingdom.