Arkham: The German government failed to seize $5 billion worth of bitcoin

ChainCatcher news, according to Arkham monitoring, the German government failed to seize bitcoin worth $5 billion. At the beginning of 2024, German police seized 49,858 bitcoins from the operators of the pirated movie website Movie2K. However, in July 2024, the government sold these bitcoins for only $2.89 billion, with an average selling price of $57,900. Currently, the Movie2K wallet still holds more than 45,000 bitcoins, almost the same amount as originally seized. This fund, worth about $5 billion, is scattered across about 100 wallets and has not been moved since 2019. Considering that the German government has made no comment on this, it is very likely that these funds are controlled by the Movie2K operators.

It is reported that Movie2K is a movie piracy website that has been active since 2013. Its operators were arrested in 2019, and in January 2024, they handed over about 50,000 bitcoins to the German government through a "voluntary transfer." The German government seized and transferred these nearly 50,000 bitcoins at the beginning of 2024.