The German authorities may have lost around 45,000 bitcoin linked to the Piracy Site of Movie2K movies, which means that there could be another $ 5 billion in Bitcoin that could eventually be seized and sell.
The Arkham cryptographic intelligence platform said Friday that it found more than 45,000 Bitcoin (BTC) that “it still remains in wallets belonging to Movie2k”, which is worth “almost as much as the amount seized” last year by Germany.
The German police confiscated almost 50,000 BTC in January 2024, which sold later that year, only months before the price of cryptocurrency almost doubled into its value.
The country has been ridiculed for missing billions of dollars in additional money by selling Bitcoin when he did, but prosecutors explained at that time that local laws dictate that they must quickly sell volatile assets such as cryptocurrencies to avoid a risk of loss.
More than 100 wallets holding potentially lost bitcoin
Arkham said that Bitcoin’s new stash, which shows its platform is 45,060 BTC, was “connected to movements and addresses of previous 2k movies.”
“Most likely, it is still under control of films2K operators. It has not moved since 2019 and is divided into more than 100 bitcoin wallets,” he added.
Arkham said the German authorities had not mentioned the bitcoin he had found, and was not included in sales that took place in the middle of the year.
Bitcoin is quoted just under $ 111,000, which puts the current value of holdings at $ 4.99 billion, which would have earned almost $ 5.6 billion in the peak of $ 124,128 of Bitcoin in mid -August.
Germany was lost billions with sales of 2024 in the middle of the year.
German prosecutors sold 49,858 Bitcoin at an average price of $ 57,900 in several sales that cover June and July 2024, obtaining a total of around $ 2.8 billion.
Only a few months later, in mid -November, Bitcoin exceeded $ 90,000 and recovered from 75% of the average sale price to more than $ 100,000 in December, which would have valued the Bitcoin sold at more than $ 5 billion.
The police seized the Bitcoin in January of that year after two men who were investigating under suspicion of executing films2K voluntarily transferred the funds to the authorities, and the authorities claim that the couple bought Bitcoin using funds they had obtained from the website.
The authorities called it “the most complete seizure of Bitcoin by the agencies of application of the law” never carried out in Germany.
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Prosecutors began selling Bitcoin in lots in multiple exchanges in June and confirmed that they had completed sales in mid -July, adding that it was legally necessary to sell assets if there was a risk of losing at least 10% of their value.
Police would need to demonstrate that the new bitcoin is illicit
It is not yet known how the German authorities will react to Arkham’s findings, but if the police want to seize Bitcoin, they will have to demonstrate that it is linked to Movie2K.
Local laws dictate that the authorities will have to prove in court that Bitcoin is of illicit origin, somehow linked to the missing piracy site, before they are allowed to take advantage of it.
Even then, the police will not be able to control the bitcoin until they find who controls the more than 100 wallets reported by Arkham and their property will be transferred.
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