The police in Saxony currently own 49,858 Bitcoins, which is the equivalent of almost two billion euros, as the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports. The police received the cryptocurrency from a suspect in the case of the illegal streaming portal “movie2k.to”; The Bitcoins are now in the wallet of the Federal Criminal Police Office, as n-tv reports. This is the largest amount of Bitcoin that German authorities have ever seized. The investigative authorities shut down “movie2k.to” in 2013. But only now did one of the accused hand over the Bitcoins.
Users were able to illegally stream pirated copies of films via “movie2k.to”. The operators played advertising from which they then made money. The accused invested their profits in Bitcoins. Since 2013, Bitcoin has increased significantly in value: from a value of around 5 million euros in 2013, it has now become almost 2 billion euros.
Bitcoin is very volatile
Although Bitcoin has increased significantly in value since 2013, the last few years have been characterized by violent upward and downward price fluctuations. These reports provide an overview of the massive price fluctuations (it is interesting that the recent approval of ETFs in the USA has by no means led to a new price rally):
This is how things continue in Saxony
The Saxon authorities are currently checking what they will do with the Bitcoins. However, if Saxony sells the Bitcoins, the question arises as to whether the almost 2 billion euros can benefit the Saxon state budget. The Süddeutsche speculates about whether the rights holders of the films streamed at the time can make claims. Or whether the accused could even get some of their loot back? Both are likely to be met with incomprehension by large parts of the population.
A spokesman for the Saxon public prosecutor’s office told Süddeutsche that this question would have to be clarified by a court. It will probably take some time before the court makes this decision.
Older reports on movie2k.to:
