German government seizes 50,000 bitcoins, making it the fourth largest holder after the US, Japan, and the UK

According to a police statement, the German government has temporarily seized 50,000 bitcoins, worth $2.17 billion, stating that this is the largest cryptocurrency seizure in Germany's history.

German Piracy Website Involved in Copyright Infringement and Money Laundering

The public prosecutor general of Dresden, the criminal police department of Saxony, and the Leipzig tax office have jointly formed the Saxony Integrated Investigation Unit INES and have recently cracked down on a German piracy website in mid-January. Although the authorities did not disclose the name of the website, it was once one of the largest piracy websites in Germany before May 2013.

Currently, the authorities are investigating two suspects, a 40-year-old German man and a 37-year-old Polish man, who are believed to be the main operators of the website. It is suspected that they used the profits from the website to purchase Bitcoin and systematically carried out money laundering operations.

A statement indicated that this is the largest Bitcoin seizure operation conducted by the criminal law enforcement agencies of the Federal Republic of Germany to date. One of the accused has voluntarily surrendered Bitcoin to the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany. However, the authorities have not yet decided on the disposition of the Bitcoin. Currently, nearly 50,000 Bitcoins have been temporarily seized.

Germany Ranks Fourth in Bitcoin Holdings

In December of last year, a U.S. court confiscated 69,370 Bitcoins, bringing the total Bitcoin holdings of the U.S. Treasury to approximately 215,000, surpassing China, which had previously seized a large amount of Bitcoins due to PlusToken, with a possible total of 190,000.

Bitcoin Treasury! U.S. Court Officially Confiscates Bitcoin from Silk Road Case: Nearly 70,000 BTC

Meanwhile, the Bitcoin holdings data platform BitcoinTreasuries has now included the confiscated Bitcoins from Germany. The German government's holdings have surpassed Ukraine's 46,351 Bitcoins, ranking fourth behind the U.S., China, and the UK.