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German Police Seize $2.1B Worth of Bitcoin in Piracy Sting

One of the suspects voluntarily transferred the bitcoin to the Federal Criminal Police Office.

By Oliver Knight|Edited by Stephen Alpher
Updated Mar 8, 2024, 8:41 p.m. Published Jan 30, 2024, 1:35 p.m.
German police announce $2.1B bitcoin seizure (Markus Spiske/Unsplash)
German police announce $2.1B bitcoin seizure (Markus Spiske/Unsplash)

In this article

BTCBTC$116,780.60◢1.89%

Police in Germany have provisionally seized 50,000 bitcoin

BTC$116,780.60
worth $2.17 billion, calling the action its largest cryptocurrency seizure ever, according to a police statement.

The claim is related the operation of a piracy website in 2013 that violated the Copyright Act. Proceeds of that venture were then converted to bitcoin. One of the two suspects voluntarily transferred the bitcoin to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the statement said.

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An investigation is ongoing into subsequent commercial money laundering, although no official charges have been lodged against the men.

"A final decision has not yet been made about the utilization of the bitcoins," the police statement added.

In 2023, the U.S. government seized $216 million worth of bitcoin linked to Silk Road, a dark net market that was taken down in 2013. The U.S. government now holds $9.5 billion worth of bitcoin, according to Arkham data.

GermanyPoliceseized cryptoBitcoin
Oliver Knight

Oliver Knight is the co-leader of CoinDesk data tokens and data team. Before joining CoinDesk in 2022 Oliver spent three years as the chief reporter at Coin Rivet. He first started investing in bitcoin in 2013 and spent a period of his career working at a market making firm in the UK. He does not currently have any crypto holdings.

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